"Heale has denied shaking Mason. Her attorney, S. Karl Mohel, has argued to the jury that the science behind shaken-baby syndrome is archaic and that theories emerging within the past 20 years suggest the same injuries can have other causes, such as infections.
But LeMieux has argued the only way Mason could have suffered the injuries he did at the base of his brain was if his brain was scraping against his skull while being violently shaken."
Tuerkheimer is now making a full-time living writing this stuff. The approach used in court is always the same: a small number (about 10-15) of physicians roam around the country offering to create “reasonable doubt” but lying under oath. A smart approach would be to say that some people are wrongly convicted and need to be freed (which is indeed a virtuous act) but instead their approach has been to try to deny the existence of the injury, ie. to imply that no one has ever assaulted an infant. This is a lot like saying “I couldn’t free a convicted rapist on new DNA evidence, so I will instead take the approach that rape itself does not exist.” It is an insult to every victim and to the memory of every murdered child. Yes, free the people who were wrongly convicted, but they are not all innocent.
It is sad to note that among the gang of usual “experts” used in these cases, two are from the Twin Cities (both pathologists). There is a neurosurgeon among this group as well, who was censured by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons regarding the biased nature of his testimony. His thing is to say that all subdural hematomas are “rebleeds” from previously resolved birth hemorrhage, despite zero evidence to support this.
Resist getting sucked in by these people. They are not using science.
"According to a 1995 American Academy of Pediatrics paper, 37 percent of those who cause shaken baby syndrome are the biological father, 21 percent involve the mother's boyfriend. 17 percent are women caregivers, 13 percent are the biological mothers and 12 percent are classified as 'other.'"
"But Logan understands that the root of the accident was not malice, 'The baby’s father didn’t wake up and say I’m going to murder this baby today. That’s not what happens.' Bob faults two elements for the accident: the frustration that arises when you’re the parent of a newborn not getting much sleep, and lack of education. 'Education is key to parents of newborns, caretakers, daycare providers.'"
“'This dissent really comes from a handful of individuals who by and large make a living testifying in trials,' said Ryan Steinbeigle, the executive director of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome. He said doctors only make the diagnosis after ruling out other causes and determining a parent or caretaker’s story doesn’t explain the baby’s injuries."
"A large portion of the public awareness that VanDorn-Hickman shares with students and new parents is how to better comfort a crying baby and how to recognize when caregivers need to give themselves a break or call for help.
VanDorn-Hickman hopes to educate new parents and even young caregivers who are perhaps babysitting, how to calm themselves and understand that crying is a normal activity for infants and that all caregivers should be educated if they are to be entrusted with your child."
"Audrey Edmunds, a wife with two kids and a third on the way, was wrongfully convicted of shaken baby syndrome, was sentenced to 18 years in prison and served 11 of those years before an appeal was granted and she was freed...
'This poor baby had 25 calls or visits to the doctor in 27 weeks,' Edmunds insisted. 'It wasn’t that she had wonderful caring parents, which she did, but that there was something wrong with her and no one looked into it deeply enough...
'A neuro surgeon from the hospital where Natalie died knew my case very well and talked to an attorney with the Innocence Project, asking him if he were aware of my case,' Edmunds said. "'This woman was wrongfully convicted,’ is what he told him — it was a great blessing.”
Uscinski and Greg Shoukimas, a neuro-radiologist, testified Thursday the brain bleeds were a combination of chronic and acute, or old and fresh, indicating that Emma had a condition that could have been present since birth.
Uscinski described in detail what he called "the generator process." He said when a brain is bleeding, a healing process begins in which a protective membrane forms, absorbing the blood.
But in some people, the membrane itself begins "oozing" blood, and the normal healing process does not work. In those cases, blood accumulates and can cause seizures, he said.
He said Emma's medical records show that her head had grown at an abnormal rate and that, when she arrived at Bronson Hospital "she was off the charts."
See above April 19,2015: "There is a neurosurgeon among this group as well, who was censured by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons regarding the biased nature of his testimony. His thing is to say that all subdural hematomas are 'rebleeds' from previously resolved birth hemorrhage, despite zero evidence to support this." This neurosurgeon is Dr. Ronald Uscinski. One could speculate that this testimony is lucrative.
From the article cited on April 20, 2015 (http://www.worldmag.com/2015/04/shaken_family/page1):
“Retinal hemorrhages are something that can happen from a variety of causes,” said Joseph Scheller, a child neurologist and critic of shaken baby syndrome who testified in the trial.
But Mohr, the child protection team doctor, claimed Naomi’s retinal bleeding was too extensive to have been caused by circulatory pressure. She said abuse was the only credible explanation for the baby’s condition.
Among the medical experts McCarthy’s lawyers plan to call is Dr. Patrick Barnes. When Leone and Martha Coakley prosecuted Louise Woodward 16 years ago, Barnes was their star expert witness. Now, he is scheduled to testify on behalf of Aisling Brady McCarthy.
“After my experience as a witness for the prosecution in the Woodward case,” Barnes said in a PBS interview, “we started using more advance imaging techniques and realized there were a number of medical conditions that can affect a baby’s brain and look like symptoms we used to attribute to shaken baby syndrome.” In other words, Patrick Barnes has reversed his thinking . http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/peter_gelzinis/2015/05/gelzinis_shaken_baby_case_re_review_prompted_by
The entire medical case against an Irish nanny accused of murdering a baby in her care in the US is to be reviewed, prompting a further delay to her trial...
At a hearing at Middlesex Superior Court, Ms McCarthy's lawyer said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was "reviewing the entire case", including nine medical reports from outside experts...
Central to the prosecution case will be testimony of child care expert, Dr Alice Newton, who claims Ms McCarthy violently shook Rehma, causing blunt force trauma.
But the defence have questioned the diagnoses of shaken baby syndrome and have raised Rehma's previous injuries and that she was sick much of her young life.
'But how can you possibly go wrong with something as cute as a baby?' you're thinking. Well, the makers of Baby Shaker proved everyone wrong with a virtual crying infant that could be stopped only when the phone is shaken violently . When it's shaken enough, two red Xs appear over the baby's eyes. Parents feared it mocked and even encouraged the Shaken Baby Syndrome or Abusive Head Trauma, where a baby suffers brain injuries because it is hit or dropped on its head.
Nate hires a number of these “experts” to present in court what Oscar Wilde called “the best evidence that money can buy.” Privately, Janet questions his decision but decides that, at this point, father knows best...
Readers of “To Tell the Truth” will have no doubt that experts, who have been coached and paid to say what lawyers want them to say, should be disqualified from testifying. In dramatizing the egregious abuse of expert testimony, Dr. Reece drives home the need for reform.
Steven Singleton, a former Buford High and Southeastern Conference football player, would pick up his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son Tye Hardin and toss him, aiming for a soft spot for him to land, sometimes the couch. Then the boy would get up and go back for more from the 6-foot-2, 300-pounder.
This friendly game, according to testimony given in court Friday, was Singleton’s most recent explanation for what caused the child’s fatal injuries in late April. Now charged with murder, Singleton reportedly claimed he missed the couch and Tye hit the floor.
But Gwinnett County police detective Patrick Watson said the autopsy findings suggest that Tye died of another cause. The boy’s injuries, which included hemorrhages in both eyes and bruising, appeared to resemble “shaken baby syndrome,” or close head trauma, the detective testified during the preliminary hearing.
"Leo's case is almost a 100% classic shaken baby, abusive head trauma type case. No witnesses witnessed any abuse, all the evidence is established by medical testimony," says Ackley's attorney Andrew Rodenhouse.
Calhoun County Medical Examiner Joyce deJong testified at trial that Baylee died from severe head trauma and ruled she was murdered.
But Ackley's family and Rodenhouse have cast doubts on that determination, and asked another doctor to review the medical records who says the injuries most likely happened from an accidental fall...
"What we've learned is actually there are a lot of causes for those symptoms, both accidental and diseases. There's just a lot of questions now about how accurately we can diagnose shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma," says Caitlin Plummer with the Michigan Innocence Clinic...
But despite the uncertainty behind it, prosecutors and medical examiners are still using the shaken baby diagnosis to put people behind bars.
"Even if you didn't have any criminal record, or any history of abuse, if you were the last one with this baby, the baby collapses and the baby has these three symptoms, there's a very good chance you're going to be accused of abusing the baby," says Plummer.
On Oct. 9, Peaslee plead guilty to the aggravated assault of the baby, which took place on Dec. 21, 2013.
“I shook her because I was just so pissed off ’cause she was soaked,” Peaslee said. “I took her in my arms and I drove and I got pulled over,” adding, “I did shake her and that’s what made her have the seizure.”
At the sentencing, Peaslee released a statement in regards to the tragic incident. The child’s mother, Ginny Trask, also spoke. He remorsefully took responsibility for his actions. Although he expressed he was “frustrated” that day, he understands there’s nothing that can be done to change the situation. According to WGME, Peaslee just “lost it.” and he still does not know why he shook his daughter.
“It was a horrible mistake that I can’t change no matter how much I wish I could,” said Peaslee. “I’m not a violent person. I was frustrated that day. She just had shots the day before, and they always make her extra fussy. Nothing will change how I feel about her and I want her to know how terribly sorry I am and I hope that one day she will forgive her father,” he said…
Peaslee also stated that he was unaware of the dangers of shaking a baby. Although the hospital showed a video stressing the severity of such actions at the time of the child’s birth, he admitted he didn’t pay much attention to the footage.
A teenage mother is fighting a do-not-resuscitate order imposed on her brain-damaged daughter, saying she should be responsible for medical decisions. Child welfare officials who intervened after the baby was severely injured say life-saving measures in the event she stops breathing would only prolong her suffering.
The mother, Virginia Trask, originally agreed to the do-not-resuscitate order. At one point, the infant was removed from life support and placed in her arms to die, then opened her eyes and began breathing...
The case is unusual. Art Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, said he’d never heard of a similar case in which a do-not-resuscitate order was imposed against a mother’s wishes.
“It could set some precedent for setting parental rights in some pretty horrible circumstances,” he said. “It could set some precedent with regards to medical authority.”
From the 5/12/15 4:22 pm comment citation: According to the WCSH-6, the infant suffered brain damage and she’s now quadriplegic, unable to see or hear. The poor baby, who is currently fighting for her life, has to be fed through a tube and is expected to succumb to premature death.
From 2/6/11: I would direct your attention to http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/magazine/06baby-t.html , an article regarding controversies surrounding shaken-baby syndrome. In the recent past I was involved in a case where the St. Paul Office of the Public Defender spent a goodly portion of its annual expert witness budget in hiring experts to refute a contention of non-accidental trauma. These included Dr. Ronald Uscinski, a neurosurgeon, and, I believe, Dr. Patrick Barnes, a neuroradiologist, both of whom are mentioned in the article (Dr. Barnes is reported as no longer taking fees to testify in criminal cases). The trial concluded with a hung jury. The defendant subsequently changed his plea to guilty. The defense had exhausted expert witness funds, so the usual horse and pony show would not be available for a retrial. The outcome of the case in which I was involved is at http://www.startribune.com/local/east/91979209.html?elr=KArks:DCiUtEia nDavcUiacvKUnciaec8O7EyUr
From 2/10/11: I do have a hint of how an innocent parent or caretaker feels in the face of an accusation of child abuse. My youngest daughter, when she was six weeks of age, fell from a baby seat carried by a sibling. She sustained a skull fracture and an epidural hematoma, which required drainage. Because of the nature of the injury, she was required to have bone screen X-rays and an ophthalmology exam. Although this was all conducted in a pro forma, matter-of-fact manner, one does not forget the feelings engendered. She did not have significant encephalopathy (she was somewhat lethargic), seizures, retinal hemorrhage or brain swelling. At ten years of age she is pretty zany, although whether this is constitutional or acquired, nature or nurture, could be debated.
I feel that in most instances of non-accidental trauma in which I have been involved I can opine with reasonable medical certainty that this was not, indeed, a catastrophic deterioration of a chronic subdural hematoma, a variant form of osteogenesis imperfecta, an undefined metabolic disorder or whatever theory de jour is proposed as an alternative to inflicted injury. As regards the who-done-it aspect, I consider that to be the district attorney's job and not mine.
On this Mother’s Day, like every other for the last seven years, Amanda Pijanowski is grateful for a simple smile or laugh from her son. Justin, now 7 year old, was shaken by his father at just one month old.
Every day, Amanda visits her son at the only home he’s ever known, an around the clock care facility. Picture frames cover a shelf, the top drawer in the room holds photo albums, and there are colorful storage bins underneath the window...
When KETV visited Amanda and Justin two years later, the little boy, then a toddler, couldn’t talk, see or move on his own. Now, at seven years old, Justin looks much like other little boys, but he is blind, fed through tubes and immobile.
Doctors at a hospital found injuries consistent with abuse, police reported. The boy’s parents, Windi Johnson and Cory McGalliard, were arrested and charged with child neglect.
Blake suffered severe head injuries and was in a long-term care facility, a police spokeswoman said Thursday. An Oklahoma City police officer testified in 2006 that the boy was brain dead, according to court documents.
McGalliard pleaded guilty to child abuse in 2008 and received a life sentence. Johnson also pleaded guilty to child abuse and is scheduled to be released from prison in January, according to state Corrections Department records.Prosecutors could file new charges against the parents now that the child has died.
See more at: http://examiner-enterprise.com/news/state/boy-dies-injuries-suffered-10-years-ago-parents-may-be-charged#sthash.2KwTiriF.dpuf
From a clinic note: He was 2 months old when allegedly in a shower with his father who reported that he fell from his arms sustaining a blow to his head at the side of the bathtub and then bouncing out and hitting a walker. There was immediate unconsciousness and gasping respiratory effort for about 3 to 5 minutes…
Further history obtained from father indicated a change in history with an admission of dropping the baby, but then shaking the baby because he was crying and the father was scared about dropping him to the point where the baby stopped crying with shaking. At the time of this evaluation, he remains in jail.
The Syndrome, a new documentary that will premiere in Denver as part of the Women + Film program at the Sie FilmCenter on Monday, June 1, will introduce you to the scientists and doctors who are standing up to the “junk science” that surrounds SBS, and is used to wrongly convict parents and child-care workers of child abuse. Over 1,000 people are in prison because of SBS-related cases, according to the filmmakers, with little proof that they — and SBS — were responsible for a child's death or injury. The film’s director, Meryl Goldsmith, will be at the Denver screening, and we spoke with her about tackling a subject of such importance and sensitivity...
When I started to learn about the problems with SBS, I couldn’t believe how much junk science went into convincing people that abuse had occurred when indeed it had not. There are thousands of people whose lives have been affected by something that can be adequately disproven, and I thought it was important to expose this issue and maybe prevent further tragedies from happening...
What is the most shocking thing you’ve discovered while working on this documentary?
The extent to which the SBS proponents go to prove their way, even when it’s false and their testimony is pulling normal, loving parents and family members out of homes and putting them in prison when no actual abuse has occurred. I remember just pausing the film and putting my head in my hands, just unable to understand any more how any of this can keep happening.
“It’s really a move from supposed certainty [about shaken baby diagnoses] toward acknowledgment of unknowns,” said Deborah Tuerkheimer, a Northwestern University law professor and author of “Flawed Convictions: ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ and the Inertia of Injustice.”
“And those questions have accelerated,” she added...
Lawyers for McCarthy say the case fits the discredited shaken baby syndrome hypothesis. “This is a shaken baby syndrome prosecution,” they wrote. “That means it is a prosecution based on a scientific hypothesis that has crumbled over the last decade.”
The Massachusetts Medical Examiner has agreed to review all the medical files in an unprecedented step before the trial begins
The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome still has strong defenders but more and more cases are being thrown out.
Since 2001, approximately 200 shaken baby cases terminated when “charges were dropped or dismissed, defendants were found not guilty, or convictions were overturned,” according to a recent joint report by the Washington Post and Northwestern University’s Medill Justice Project...
However, there are still many defenders of shaken baby syndrome.
“Abusive head trauma and shaken baby syndrome are real,” said Cindy Christian, chairwoman of child abuse and neglect prevention at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “The science hasn’t shifted. It’s expanded, just like in every area of medicine.”
But Keith Findley, assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin and the co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, told the Globe the clear consensus around shaken baby diagnosis has crumbled.
“There is no gold standard diagnostic criteria for shaken baby syndrome,” he said. “The science is changing.”
On the first day of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court the infant’s mother testified that her daughter was fine on the morning of March 28th, 2012 when she dropped her to the home of Sandra Higgins (34).
Ms Higgins of The Beeches, Drumgola Wood, Cavan town, Co Cavan has pleaded not guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the baby at her home on March 28th, 2012. At about 4.30pm that day Ms Higgins had brought the infant to the emergency department at Cavan General hospital.
Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, told the jury they would hear evidence the child was suffering active seizures and had extensive bruising around the face and both sides of the head.
Opening the State’s case, Mr Gillane said a medical expert will say retinal haemorrhaging suffered by the infant was consistent with violent shaking injury which was not accidental.
The child’s mother told the court she went to the hospital after receiving a call from Ms Higgins from the hospital and told her the infant had had some kind of a fit or seizure. “She said [the child] was fine all day. She had a sleep. She had her tea. She just sat down on the floor to play and vomited and had a seizure,” the witness said.
She said when she got to the hospital her child was unconscious. “I was very upset. I couldn’t believe it. [She] had been fine that morning.”
She noticed the infant had a swelling between her eyebrows and asked the accused about this. Ms Higgins told her the infant had been fine all day and said she had not fallen or bumped her head. She told the mother that the bump between her eyebrows was from a different day, the court heard.
The witness said she was sure the bump was not there that morning. She said that over the next days the child was subject to a number of examinations and a doctor told her that the baby had two rib fractures that were three to four weeks old. There was also medical opinion that some of the injuries were the result of violent shaking.
Before she died as the result of physical abuse last week, 2-year-old Sophia O’ Neill suffered a torn liver, kidney and pancreas. Cuts to the inside of her stomach. A collapsed lung. Eight broken ribs.
That’s a partial list of the injuries cited by the Hennepin County medical examiner in a second-degree murder charge filed Monday against Cody Feran-Baum, 17, of Minneapolis. According to the charges, Feran-Baum kicked Sophia in the back during a fit of anger while trying “to get her to stop” crying. When that didn’t work, he laid her face down on the floor and stomped on her back.
When asked by police how hard he kicked Sophia, Feran-Baum said, “It was, it was bad,” and then added, “I kinda snapped on her,” the charges say.
Sophia died after being rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center on Wednesday, less than a day after the kicking-and-stomping incident at Feran-Baum’s grandmother’s south Minneapolis home, where he lived, and where Sophia and her mother had been staying temporarily.
The next day at Brayden’s follow-up appointment, the pediatrician gave them some more startling news: Brayden had 15 fractured ribs. Keshia said that she was shocked, because he didn’t seem to be exhibiting any signs of pain:
She told IJReview: “I broke out crying. I couldn’t even talk to her anymore other than to tell her I wanted to take him to [East Tennessee] Children’s [Hospital].”
Before the appointment, Keshia had received a call from the sheriff’s office, asking the family to come in. The Turners went to the sheriff’s office after Brayden’s appointment, where they were told they had to take Brayden to see Dr. Deborah Lowen, a child abuse specialist, at Vanderbilt Hospital.
There, Dr. Lowen found a total of 33 fractures in Brayden’s body, and said that Brayden’s symptoms matched that of Shaken Baby Syndrome: “The only way these fractures could have happened was for an adult to have violently squeezed and shaken him on numerous occasions,” Dr. Lowen said, according to Keshia...
Eugene Wilson, an expert on a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos, spoke with IJReview about Brayden’s case: “In the Turner case there are several factors that were not considered by the CA specialist that can have a direct bearing on this issue. To have an infant with that many fractures, the child would have suffered severe internal trauma.”
Wilson says that the fractures are “pathological fractures” that could be due to metabolic bone disease (also called rickets), connective tissue disorder, or bone tumors.
The Guardian reported on a similar case in London, England, in which a couple was acquitted of killing their 18-week-old son, Jayden. After the court found that he died of congenital rickets, which is a disease caused by Vitamin D deficiency in the mother during pregnancy, the couple regained custody of their second child.’’...
According to feature in the Washington Post, doctors have begun to challenge the way that Shaken Baby Syndrome is diagnosed during child abuse cases. Forensic pathologist Patrick Lantz said that trauma symptoms might not necessarily be due to child abuse: “If doctors see retinal hemorrhages, they say it’s abuse,” said Lantz, who has published four studies on the issue. “But it’s as scientific as a fortuneteller reading tea leaves.”
Dr Julie Mack, who specialises in paediatric radiology, said that the bleeding she identified on scans of the child's brain did not represent the rupture of larger blood vessels associated with baby shaking.
“These are the veins thought to be ruptured when you shake a baby and in this case there is simply not enough blood for a large vessel tear. It came from a smaller vessel,” the defense witness told the jury.
She said the bleeding on the membranes just above the brain could have been caused by bruising resulting from a bump on the head.
Under cross examination, she told Sean Gillane SC that the standard view is that when you shake a baby large bridging veins break into the space between the skull and the brain.
"It is a standard view, most people believe and are taught that when you shake a baby the veins break into the subdural space. I absolutely disagree with it.”
Dr Hobbs, who specialises in child maltreatment, said he would have raised serious concerns about the bruising alone.
He said the distribution of the bruises on the baby would have been extremely concerning because of the baby's age.
The number and sites were very unusual such as bruising on the padded area of the buttock.
A cluster of bruises on a baby's back along with two broken ribs was extremely unusual and normally associated with compression or baby shaking.
He said it was a "classic text book case of baby shaking". He also said bruising to the ear was very worrying.
He said the triad of finding of a brain bleed, retinal haemorrhaging and retinal detachment were all indicative of baby shaking but that the term baby shaking syndrome could also include some impact.
"The term has shifted from baby shaking syndrome to non-accidental head trauma. We don't know the precise mechanism, all we know is there is a level of violence involved".
A study he carried out in 2005 of 186 infants with subdural haematoma identified 106 as having suffered from abuse and only seven were accidental injuries.
The remainder were due to other factors such as disease or birth injury.
He also said there was no good evidence of "lucid interval" after a head injury such as this.
"It makes no sense to say that she was shaken the day before because her brain was damaged," he said.
During cross-examination, Dr Hobbs said shaken baby syndrome was more than a hypothesis and was well established over many years.
He said he believed the onset of symptoms was the most accurate way to establish the time of the injury.
It was put to him by defence counsel Remy Farrell that this could not be conclusive.
Dr Hobbs said it was not conclusive but it was the best guide they had. He said there was no reason to think that the brain would be perfectly all right and then suddenly become unwell.
He said the change in the baby will be an indicator of the time of the injury.
He did not believe there was any evidence to support a theory of a lucid interval or latent period between a head injury and the onset of symptoms.
"All we can say is that we don't think there is a period after the child is shaken when they are just fine and then the next day they collapse, we don't think that is what happens and we don't have any sound evidence for that."
Mr Farrell put it to him that there was "stark and bitter" disagreement among medical professionals about shaken baby syndrome.
Dr Hobbs said he had not experienced this but would not be surprised if there was because it was an emotive subject and doctors fall out just like other people.
Professor of Pediatrics at Temple Street Children's University Hospital Alf Nicholson said the constellation of injuries "was really quite consistent with abusive head trauma or shaken baby syndrome".
He said Temple Street had a lot of experience with these cases.
"It is a very difficult issue, a very emotive issue. I've been down this road many times."
Consultant radiologist at Cavan General Hospital Dr Val Gough said the CT scan of the baby's brain showed a subdural haemorrhage which was a high indicator of suspicion of a non-accidental injury.
He said he would not agree with Dr Julie Mack's view that the bleed was due to a chronic or previous condition.
A UK neuropathologist has told the trial of a child-minder charged with assaulting a baby that shaken baby syndrome has no scientific validation.
Registered child-minder Sandra Higgins (34) is alleged to have caused the injuries to the 10-month-old baby she was minding at her home. The trial has reached its final stages and closing speeches will be made before the jury on Tuesday.
Ms Higgins of The Beeches, Drumgola Wood, Cavan town, Co Cavan has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the baby on March 28th, 2012.
Defence witness Dr Waney Squier told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, she supported the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome up to 15 years ago.
“Only 15 years ago I too was making the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. I too was a believer in the belief that so many people in the area of child abuse believe in. I then began to question this,” she said.
She said she questioned it when a number of elements that supported the diagnosis were overturned by research. She said she began studying the scientific literature on the subject in great detail.
“I looked at many many cases of shaken baby syndrome,” she said. “I could no longer agree that this was a syndrome that had any scientific validation. I came to the view that I could not be sure this is a real syndrome.”
She rejected a suggestion from Mr Gillane that this represented a fixed view on her part. She said she has changed her mind in relation to the issue.
“We all have to be careful. We have to keep our minds open. I’ve changed my mind already,” she said.
She told Remy Farrell SC, defending, there was evidence of a pre-existing sub-dural haemorrhage in the child. She said this pre-existing condition would manifest in the baby’s head size, or the baby being irritable, not wanting to feed, losing weight or vomiting.
She said there were documented cases of babies who had inflicted injuries experiencing a “lucid interval” or a period of time after a head injury when a baby may be perfectly normal. She said in this case there was evidence of older damage.
“I think it is very dangerous to say because the child collapses at a certain time we know when the injury occurred,” she said.
The trial has heard evidence that the child was fine that morning and during the day. Around 5pm, Ms Higgins brought her to Cavan General Hospital where she presented with a brain bleed, detached retina and fractured ribs. She had seizures for over five days.
The prosecution alleges the baby’s symptoms were consistent with a violent shaking.
Doctors who treated the baby girl said it was highly likely that the injuries to the child happened while she was in the care of Ms Higgins and that the injuries were non-accidental.
Expert witnesses for the defence said the evidence was more suggestive of a head trauma and could have been the re-activation of an old injury...
In his closing speech Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, told the jury that they should “stress test” the evidence of two expert defence witnesses. He said they were “hand in glove” sharing a fixed view about shaken-baby syndrome, which was contrary to all the medical literature.
He said that the evidence was that the child was a perfectly normal baby up to the time before the alleged assault.
“She was bubbly, she was babbly, she was playful. She was developing in every single respect you might expect,” counsel said.
He said the jury would have to ask themselves a simple question:
When did the child go from normal to abnormal and what does that mean to you?
Defence counsel Remy Farrell SC said that it is accepted that the injuries suffered by the child were non-accidental.
“The old injuries are wholly consistent with some trauma. It’s blindingly obvious whatever event occurred weeks before could have caused a subdural haemorrhage,” he said.
He told the jury that there was not a “screed of evidence” to support the “subtle implication” made by the prosecution that Ms Higgins had caused these older injuries such as finger tip bruises and fractured ribs.
He said that prosecution witness, consultant paediatrician Dr Christopher Hobbs, had said that a bruise on the baby’s ear was indicative of abuse. He said the child’s mother had very little to say about these bruises.
He said the jury should find it “downright odd” that Ms Higgins should have to explain these bruises when she was not the person to bathe the baby.
He said that nobody seemed to dispute that Ms Higgins was the one who advised the mother to bring the baby to the doctor when she was chesty. Counsel said:
Somebody who had physically abused a child, possibly fractured ribs, that person would recommend the child being brought to the doctors? It doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense.
According to the criminal complaint, the infant was taken to the Columbus Community Hospital for a checkup on June 11. The physician noted that the infant's head measured larger than normal. Officials said the infant had an MRI and ultrasound and the MRI revealed fluid collection in the boy's head, according to the criminal complaint.
The physician reported the injuries were consistent with a shaken baby and that the infant could have long term vision problems from the injury.
A detective questioned the infant's mother about her son's injuries and she said that about two weeks before her son's four-month appointment, she noticed he was getting more "fussy" to the point where he was "inconsolable," according to the criminal complaint.
Officials said the mother stated that twice during that two-week period, she was called home by her husband, Raymond Koester. She stated that during the week after the four-month appointment, her husband called her home again.
According to the criminal complaint, Raymond admitted to shaking his son about seven to 10 days before the infant's doctor appointment. Raymond told authorities that his son became fussy and was crying so he picked him up and shook him about four times. Detectives said Raymond demonstrated, with a doll, how he picked his son up with two hands and shook him. Authorities said Raymond admitted there was another time he shook the infant, and it was in a similar manner to the first time.
A Toms River woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for shaking to death the 14-month-old boy she was babysitting.
Michelle Heale, described by the child's parents as a "monster" and "evil," insisted she didn't harm Mason Hess in any way, but Superior Court Judge Francis Vernoia said jurors believed otherwise...
Heale, 46, contended at trial that Mason choked on some applesauce and that he may have been injured inadvertently as she was trying to clear his throat...
Before the judge imposed his sentence, Heale used part of her 15-minute address to Vernoia to rail against the medical theory of shaken baby syndrome.
"Innocent people are being sent to prison based on this flawed theory," she said. "This needs to stop."
Vernoia, who presided over Heale's trial, said her unwillingness to accept responsibility for her actions prevents her from addressing whatever issue she has that triggered her action the day Mason was injured...
Adam Hess said he has recurring nightmares and flashbacks about the events that unfolded after learning of his son's injuries. He said he went from feeling out of control as a father at not being able to help his son to feeling out of control as a husband at not being able to help his wife.
They took their first born off life support after two days, they said.
His cervical spine broken, Mason was wearing a neck brace and had "dozens" of wires attached to his head and a tube in his throat to help him breathe, Adam Hess said.
"Knowing he could not feel my kiss is something I have to live with for the rest of my life," he said...
During the trial, which ended April 17, Heale testified that Mason choked on applesauce. She told jurors she hit him on the back, brought him off her shoulder "quickly" without supporting his head, causing it to snap backwards.
Repeatedly, injuries generated in a manner similar to what follows are quite minor in contrast to the devastating brain injury caused by shaken baby syndrome. See also comment above May 13, 2015 at 10:09 AM.
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Authorities in Pennsylvania say a nurse has dropped a newborn boy at a hospital, fracturing his skull. The baby's mother says a doctor told her the nurse was "drowsy." The hospital and Uniontown police say the 30-year veteran nurse at Uniontown Hospital was holding the baby at about 6 a.m. Tuesday when he fell from her grasp. Mother Jacqueline Hunt tells WPXI-TV that a pediatrician told her the nurse was feeding and burping her 1-day-old son "and she was drowsy and fell asleep and dropped him." Hall says he has a skull fracture but is expected to recover. The hospital says, "We are sorry that such a wonderful event has been overshadowed by an unfortunate situation." Police are investigating but say they don't believe criminal conduct was involved.
Read More at: http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/features/top-story/stories/nurse-drops-newborn-at-hospital-fracturing-his-skull-26834.shtml?wap=0
From the abundant offerings of TV crime dramas it is obvious that the law enforcement community has benefited from the advancements in modern science, such as DNA evidence.
But in at least one area, law enforcement and the rest of the justice system seem to be lagging.
Introduced as a theory in the 1960s, for decades shaken-baby deaths were identified by a triad of symptoms — hemorrhaging in the eyes, subdural hematoma and a swollen brain — that were viewed as iron-clad medical evidence a child died of abuse.
But by 2006, medical experts around the world began questioning the symptoms as conclusive. Defendants began appealing guilty verdicts and winning based on flawed forensic findings.
Child forensic pathology expert Dr. Janice Ophoven has testified in several Alaska trials where people were accused of the shaking death of a child.
Failing to use board-certified forensic pathologists to review the forensic evidence, and failing to recognize that other medical conditions also present this trio of symptoms is causing innocent Alaskans to be tried, convicted and receive long prison sentences, she says.
“This is one of the worst miscarriage of justice cases I’ve had, but it is not the only case like it in Alaska,” Ophoven said of the Clayton Allison trial and conviction in his daughter’s death. Allison is set for sentencing Wednesday.
According to a review of shaken-baby cases by Deborah Tuerkheimer, a DePaul University law professor and author of the just-published book, “Flawed Convictions: “Shaken Baby Syndrome and the Inertia of Injustice,” 95 percent of people charged in shaken-baby deaths are convicted, and of those, 90 percent receive life sentences.
The prosecution is seeking a 40-year sentence — 30 to serve and 10 years of probation — for Clayton Allison. An appeal is planned, but that process will likely take years.
On Sept. 24, 2008, Clayton told police his daughter, Jocelynn, accidentally tumbled down eight carpeted steps, then struck her head on a chair with a file-box on top. She died of her injuries a few hours later at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.
But the jury in the Allison case never heard about the significance of the chair or the heavy box of files on top of it. Jurors heard about the child’s medical condition. They knew the baby was diagnosed with hypermobility.
But the judge ruled no one could tell jurors that Jocelynn’s mother had been diagnosed with a connective tissue disease — Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome — after her death, and that it could have a direct effect on the injuries she sustained...
But Ophoven, a pathologist, noted that falls are the No. 1 cause of child deaths, and that Jocelynn’s fall that September could have resulted in her death, especially given her existing medical diagnosis....
For Alaskans, this is an opportunity to call for reform to the process law enforcement and prosecutors use to investigate possible shaken-baby deaths.
29-year-old Wilder woman was sentenced for felony injury to child on Wednesday after she admitted to violently shaking a baby boy while babysitting him.
Sarah Kuiper-Boles, 29, was sentenced to four years fixed, followed by six years indeterminate, in prison.
Kuiper-Boles was arrested in February 2015 after an investigation by Wilder Police and the Canyon County Sheriff's Office revealed she had violently shaken a baby on several occasions between November 2014 and January 2015.
Kuiper-Boles admitted to detectives that she became angry and frustrated while babysitting the 6-month-old and violently shook him in a back and forth motion because he was crying.
She also admitted that after shaking the child on another occasion, his eyes rolled back in his head, his body went limp and he began vomiting.
When detectives asked Kuiper-Boles to re-enact what she did on a baby doll, she admitted she was scared to show how hard she shook the baby because she was afraid the doll's head would come off.
Something bad happened to baby Amy* and it wasn't an accident.
On this much, but little else, the prosecution and defence in the trial of Cavan childminder Sandra Higgins agreed...
When Amy presented at hospital, the situation was grave: she had active seizures and her body was floppy.
She had extensive bruising, as well as head and facial injuries while tests also uncovered older injuries including fractured ribs.
Amy had, the trial heard, suffered a brain injury, detached retina and retinal haemorrhaging and had seizures for five days.
Doctors who treated baby Amy said her injuries were consistent with violent shaking, were non-accidental and that it was highly likely they had happened to her while in Ms Higgins's care.
One leading UK child abuse expert stated that it was "a classic, textbook case" of shaken baby syndrome...
Remy Farrell SC, who defended Ms Higgins, queried, however, how the prosecution could assert Amy was a perfectly normal child up to March 28 but was silent on the older injuries, including fractured ribs and fingertip bruises on her back.
The defence, which argued the evidence was more suggestive of a head trauma and the possible re-activation of an old injury, said it was not contending for accidental injury. And Mr Farrell urged the jury to acquit if they couldn't say conclusively what happened and if they had any doubt that Sandra Higgins inflicted the injuries.
For reasons we cannot know, the jury disagreed.
This is, perhaps, a reflection of disagreement in the medical arena on shaken baby syndrome.
Having personally watched at least 5 babies die of obvious parental or caregiver head trauma in 12 weeks while rotating on the Pediatric Surgery rotation as a surgical resident I caution against spinning the opposite "truth" that the medically abusive parent is usually rare. Sadly this is not the case.
Testifying for the defense in the murder trial of Cabanayan’s father Shane Eric Hinkson, Dr. Joseph Burton told the jury that recent research has shown “pure Shaken Baby Syndrome” does not exist, because adults can’t produce the force needed to rupture veins in an infant’s skull to cause a subdural hematoma, or internal bleeding between the brain and skull.
Burton is not alone in that contention, as forensic pathologists and other physicians lately have expressed doubts about the diagnosis, saying other conditions can mimic the medical evidence once considered indicative of inflicted head trauma.
What neither they nor Burton doubt, though, is that if a baby being moved violently hits a surface that abruptly stops the motion, it can cause such sudden deceleration that the child suffers head trauma.
“You have to stop the head during the process,” Burton said, acknowledging also that the baby’s head needn’t hit a hard surface to sustain the injury: Slamming an infant down on a bed would do the damage.
Doctors who treated Cabanayan saw no external signs of the severe head trauma that was revealed by a brain scan. They noted only two small bruises under the baby’s jaw, one on each side.
During Burton’s defense testimony, he and attorney David Wolfe used a doll to demonstrate shaking an infant. In cross examining Burton, prosecutor William Hocutt IV used the doll, too.
With one hand under the doll’s chin, his thumb on one side and two fingers on the other, Hocutt demonstrated hurling a baby boy onto his back on a bed, and asked Burton if that could have caused Cabanayan’s injuries.
Burton agreed that it could have.
Hocutt has told jurors Hinkson, who was engaged to the baby’s mother and caring for the child on Jan. 1, 2012, became frustrated when Cabanayan would not stop crying and lost his temper, fatally injuring the infant. The mother said Hinkson called her at work at 1:55 p.m. that New Year’s Day to tell her “something bad had happened” and she needed to come to his Antietam Drive apartment to get their son.
The mother testified she arrived to find Hinkson standing in the kitchen with a gun to his head and the baby lying on the bed in the bedroom, moaning. The infant’s right eye was nearly shut, and one eye looked up while the other looked down, she said.
Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2015/07/22/3825079/murder-trial-defense-expert-dismisses.html#storylink=cpy
A MUM is taking on the Great North Run to raise enough money to buy a “virtual baby” to help educate other parents about the dangers of shaking small children. Jessica Stephenson, who runs the charity Charlee’s Angels, is hoping to start running information sessions for new parents on how to deal with stressful situations like crying in order to cut the risk of shaking babies.She started the charity, which aims to prevent more cases of shaken baby syndrome (SBS), following the death of her nephew Charlee Cameron, from Gainford, in 2011.She said: “It’s a really taboo subject so people aren’t educated about it but I think it’s important for people to know.“I’m sure a lot of people will think it doesn’t apply to them but people need to realise that when people shake babies they don’t set out to abuse that child.“It can be anyone and it could be someone who gets frustrated because of something like crying.“Learning coping mechanisms for crying is so important. I was 17 when I had my little boy and I used to hide in the corner thinking why is he crying, but I knew I had people to turn to who could help.”When the virtual baby is shaken parts of its head light up to show which areas would be damaged in a real infant. It comes with a programme which Ms Stephenson hopes to deliver in village halls and at events around Teesdale. She also plans to use the doll to make online educational videos which will be posted on the blog she has started to raise awareness about the issues. She added: “It’s something that would be incredibly hard for me to demonstrate with the doll but if it can save babies then that counts for something.”The doll costs £500, which she is hoping to raise by tackling the Great North Run in September.She will be doing the run with seven other family members who are also raising money for Charlee’s Angels.
- See more at: http://www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/Articles/mum-aims-to-raise-%C2%A3500-by-completing-great-north-run#sthash.9atbYUOQ.dpuf
A prominent, but increasingly controversial child-abuse expert believes that a 3-month-old Danvers baby was shaken by an angry father hard enough to cause a brain bleed and other substantial injuries.
But a defense expert testified on Monday that Dr. Alice Newton overlooked other possible causes of the infant’s subdural hematoma, retinal bleeding and head swelling, including what he believes is a hereditary condition.
Dr. Joseph Scheller (see comment May 1, 2015), a Baltimore pediatric neurologist hired by Daniel Green’s lawyer, said he believes the infant’s brain bleed was caused by pressure from excess spinal fluid that collected in the area between the brain and the skull, a condition called benign extra-axial fluid collection...
Prosecutors and police point to evidence that Green was increasingly unhappy in his marriage and frustrated with the baby, who was born prematurely at 35 weeks, as proof that, while alone with him on the afternoon of Nov. 27, 2012, he violently shook or threw the infant.
Newton, who at the time ran the Boston Children’s Hospital Child Protection Team, concluded that the infant’s injuries were a classic case of shaken baby syndrome, now called abusive head trauma.
It’s a conclusion, Newton testified, based on “clinical experience and judgment.”
But Green and his defense lawyer, Joseph Collins, say it’s the wrong conclusion.
See: http://www.laweekly.com/film/is-shaken-baby-syndrome-the-new-satanic-panic-a-new-doc-reveals-the-same-experts-behind-both-5481984
ReplyDelete"Heale has denied shaking Mason. Her attorney, S. Karl Mohel, has argued to the jury that the science behind shaken-baby syndrome is archaic and that theories emerging within the past 20 years suggest the same injuries can have other causes, such as infections.
ReplyDeleteBut LeMieux has argued the only way Mason could have suffered the injuries he did at the base of his brain was if his brain was scraping against his skull while being violently shaken."
See: http://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2015/04/17/shaken-baby-verdict/25942639/
See: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/05/shaken_baby_syndrome_in_the_courts_a_judge_finally_calls_the_diagnosis_an.single.html
ReplyDeleteFrom a neurosurgery colleague:
Tuerkheimer is now making a full-time living writing this stuff. The approach used in court is always the same: a small number (about 10-15) of physicians roam around the country offering to create “reasonable doubt” but lying under oath. A smart approach would be to say that some people are wrongly convicted and need to be freed (which is indeed a virtuous act) but instead their approach has been to try to deny the existence of the injury, ie. to imply that no one has ever assaulted an infant. This is a lot like saying “I couldn’t free a convicted rapist on new DNA evidence, so I will instead take the approach that rape itself does not exist.” It is an insult to every victim and to the memory of every murdered child. Yes, free the people who were wrongly convicted, but they are not all innocent.
It is sad to note that among the gang of usual “experts” used in these cases, two are from the Twin Cities (both pathologists). There is a neurosurgeon among this group as well, who was censured by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons regarding the biased nature of his testimony. His thing is to say that all subdural hematomas are “rebleeds” from previously resolved birth hemorrhage, despite zero evidence to support this.
Resist getting sucked in by these people. They are not using science.
"According to a 1995 American Academy of Pediatrics paper, 37 percent of those who cause shaken baby syndrome are the biological father, 21 percent involve the mother's boyfriend. 17 percent are women caregivers, 13 percent are the biological mothers and 12 percent are classified as 'other.'"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailycomet.com/article/20150418/articles/150419622?p=1&tc=pg
"But Logan understands that the root of the accident was not malice, 'The baby’s father didn’t wake up and say I’m going to murder this baby today. That’s not what happens.' Bob faults two elements for the accident: the frustration that arises when you’re the parent of a newborn not getting much sleep, and lack of education. 'Education is key to parents of newborns, caretakers, daycare providers.'"
ReplyDeleteSee: http://nhpr.org/post/giving-matters-nhct-reduces-incidents-shaken-baby-syndrome
“'This dissent really comes from a handful of individuals who by and large make a living testifying in trials,' said Ryan Steinbeigle, the executive director of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome. He said doctors only make the diagnosis after ruling out other causes and determining a parent or caretaker’s story doesn’t explain the baby’s injuries."
ReplyDeleteSee; http://www.worldmag.com/2015/04/shaken_family/page1
See also: http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/28832133/new-documentary-looks-into-shaken-baby-syndrome-showing-this-weekend
"A large portion of the public awareness that VanDorn-Hickman shares with students and new parents is how to better comfort a crying baby and how to recognize when caregivers need to give themselves a break or call for help.
ReplyDeleteVanDorn-Hickman hopes to educate new parents and even young caregivers who are perhaps babysitting, how to calm themselves and understand that crying is a normal activity for infants and that all caregivers should be educated if they are to be entrusted with your child."
See: http://www.woodwardnews.net/news/personal-story-brings-focus-to-shaken-baby-syndrome/article_76a353c4-eab6-11e4-8751-fbccede8c9da.html
"Audrey Edmunds, a wife with two kids and a third on the way, was wrongfully convicted of shaken baby syndrome, was sentenced to 18 years in prison and served 11 of those years before an appeal was granted and she was freed...
ReplyDelete'This poor baby had 25 calls or visits to the doctor in 27 weeks,' Edmunds insisted. 'It wasn’t that she had wonderful caring parents, which she did, but that there was something wrong with her and no one looked into it deeply enough...
'A neuro surgeon from the hospital where Natalie died knew my case very well and talked to an attorney with the Innocence Project, asking him if he were aware of my case,' Edmunds said. "'This woman was wrongfully convicted,’ is what he told him — it was a great blessing.”
See: http://www.presspubs.com/burnett/news/article_572c537a-ee7a-11e4-b1df-afaae99dbf5f.html
Uscinski and Greg Shoukimas, a neuro-radiologist, testified Thursday the brain bleeds were a combination of chronic and acute, or old and fresh, indicating that Emma had a condition that could have been present since birth.
ReplyDeleteUscinski described in detail what he called "the generator process." He said when a brain is bleeding, a healing process begins in which a protective membrane forms, absorbing the blood.
But in some people, the membrane itself begins "oozing" blood, and the normal healing process does not work. In those cases, blood accumulates and can cause seizures, he said.
He said Emma's medical records show that her head had grown at an abnormal rate and that, when she arrived at Bronson Hospital "she was off the charts."
http://www.heraldpalladium.com/news/local/defense-witness-challenges-shaken-baby-claim/article_cbceb063-df90-5517-9ed8-b9348fa386da.html
See above April 19,2015: "There is a neurosurgeon among this group as well, who was censured by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons regarding the biased nature of his testimony. His thing is to say that all subdural hematomas are 'rebleeds' from previously resolved birth hemorrhage, despite zero evidence to support this." This neurosurgeon is Dr. Ronald Uscinski. One could speculate that this testimony is lucrative.
From the article cited on April 20, 2015 (http://www.worldmag.com/2015/04/shaken_family/page1):
ReplyDelete“Retinal hemorrhages are something that can happen from a variety of causes,” said Joseph Scheller, a child neurologist and critic of shaken baby syndrome who testified in the trial.
But Mohr, the child protection team doctor, claimed Naomi’s retinal bleeding was too extensive to have been caused by circulatory pressure. She said abuse was the only credible explanation for the baby’s condition.
Among the medical experts McCarthy’s lawyers plan to call is Dr. Patrick Barnes. When Leone and Martha Coakley prosecuted Louise Woodward 16 years ago, Barnes was their star expert witness. Now, he is scheduled to testify on behalf of Aisling Brady McCarthy.
ReplyDelete“After my experience as a witness for the prosecution in the Woodward case,” Barnes said in a PBS interview, “we started using more advance imaging techniques and realized there were a number of medical conditions that can affect a baby’s brain and look like symptoms we used to attribute to shaken baby syndrome.” In other words, Patrick Barnes has reversed his thinking
.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/peter_gelzinis/2015/05/gelzinis_shaken_baby_case_re_review_prompted_by
The entire medical case against an Irish nanny accused of murdering a baby in her care in the US is to be reviewed, prompting a further delay to her trial...
ReplyDeleteAt a hearing at Middlesex Superior Court, Ms McCarthy's lawyer said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was "reviewing the entire case", including nine medical reports from outside experts...
Central to the prosecution case will be testimony of child care expert, Dr Alice Newton, who claims Ms McCarthy violently shook Rehma, causing blunt force trauma.
But the defence have questioned the diagnoses of shaken baby syndrome and have raised Rehma's previous injuries and that she was sick much of her young life.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32506604
Baby shaker
ReplyDelete'But how can you possibly go wrong with something as cute as a baby?' you're thinking. Well, the makers of Baby Shaker proved everyone wrong with a virtual crying infant that could be stopped only when the phone is shaken violently . When it's shaken enough, two red Xs appear over the baby's eyes. Parents feared it mocked and even encouraged the Shaken Baby Syndrome or Abusive Head Trauma, where a baby suffers brain injuries because it is hit or dropped on its head.
See: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/gaming-apps-that-had-to-be-taken-down/articleshow/47187673.cms
Nate hires a number of these “experts” to present in court what Oscar Wilde called “the best evidence that money can buy.” Privately, Janet questions his decision but decides that, at this point, father knows best...
ReplyDeleteReaders of “To Tell the Truth” will have no doubt that experts, who have been coached and paid to say what lawyers want them to say, should be disqualified from testifying. In dramatizing the egregious abuse of expert testimony, Dr. Reece drives home the need for reform.
Book review of "To Tell the Truth".
http://www.capenews.net/falmouth/news/book-review-novel-to-tell-the-truth-takes-on-court/article_1c076d52-f587-11e4-8086-179a7cf671cb.html
“Tye Toss” was exactly what it sounds like.
ReplyDeleteSteven Singleton, a former Buford High and Southeastern Conference football player, would pick up his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son Tye Hardin and toss him, aiming for a soft spot for him to land, sometimes the couch. Then the boy would get up and go back for more from the 6-foot-2, 300-pounder.
This friendly game, according to testimony given in court Friday, was Singleton’s most recent explanation for what caused the child’s fatal injuries in late April. Now charged with murder, Singleton reportedly claimed he missed the couch and Tye hit the floor.
But Gwinnett County police detective Patrick Watson said the autopsy findings suggest that Tye died of another cause. The boy’s injuries, which included hemorrhages in both eyes and bruising, appeared to resemble “shaken baby syndrome,” or close head trauma, the detective testified during the preliminary hearing.
http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2015/may/08/testimony-former-football-star-claims-tossing/
"Leo's case is almost a 100% classic shaken baby, abusive head trauma type case. No witnesses witnessed any abuse, all the evidence is established by medical testimony," says Ackley's attorney Andrew Rodenhouse.
ReplyDeleteCalhoun County Medical Examiner Joyce deJong testified at trial that Baylee died from severe head trauma and ruled she was murdered.
But Ackley's family and Rodenhouse have cast doubts on that determination, and asked another doctor to review the medical records who says the injuries most likely happened from an accidental fall...
"What we've learned is actually there are a lot of causes for those symptoms, both accidental and diseases. There's just a lot of questions now about how accurately we can diagnose shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma," says Caitlin Plummer with the Michigan Innocence Clinic...
But despite the uncertainty behind it, prosecutors and medical examiners are still using the shaken baby diagnosis to put people behind bars.
"Even if you didn't have any criminal record, or any history of abuse, if you were the last one with this baby, the baby collapses and the baby has these three symptoms, there's a very good chance you're going to be accused of abusing the baby," says Plummer.
http://www.wwmt.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/Special-Report-Shadow-of-Doubt-129773.shtml
On Oct. 9, Peaslee plead guilty to the aggravated assault of the baby, which took place on Dec. 21, 2013.
ReplyDelete“I shook her because I was just so pissed off ’cause she was soaked,” Peaslee said. “I took her in my arms and I drove and I got pulled over,” adding, “I did shake her and that’s what made her have the seizure.”
At the sentencing, Peaslee released a statement in regards to the tragic incident. The child’s mother, Ginny Trask, also spoke. He remorsefully took responsibility for his actions. Although he expressed he was “frustrated” that day, he understands there’s nothing that can be done to change the situation. According to WGME, Peaslee just “lost it.” and he still does not know why he shook his daughter.
“It was a horrible mistake that I can’t change no matter how much I wish I could,” said Peaslee. “I’m not a violent person. I was frustrated that day. She just had shots the day before, and they always make her extra fussy. Nothing will change how I feel about her and I want her to know how terribly sorry I am and I hope that one day she will forgive her father,” he said…
Peaslee also stated that he was unaware of the dangers of shaking a baby. Although the hospital showed a video stressing the severity of such actions at the time of the child’s birth, he admitted he didn’t pay much attention to the footage.
http://www.inquisitr.com/1616434/father-sentenced-to-seven-years-for-violently-shaking-infant-daughter-to-spastic-quadriplegic-state-justice/
Regarding the 5/12/15 4:22 pm comment see also:
ReplyDeleteA teenage mother is fighting a do-not-resuscitate order imposed on her brain-damaged daughter, saying she should be responsible for medical decisions. Child welfare officials who intervened after the baby was severely injured say life-saving measures in the event she stops breathing would only prolong her suffering.
The mother, Virginia Trask, originally agreed to the do-not-resuscitate order. At one point, the infant was removed from life support and placed in her arms to die, then opened her eyes and began breathing...
The case is unusual. Art Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, said he’d never heard of a similar case in which a do-not-resuscitate order was imposed against a mother’s wishes.
“It could set some precedent for setting parental rights in some pretty horrible circumstances,” he said. “It could set some precedent with regards to medical authority.”
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/maine-mom-fights-state-over-no-resuscitation-order/article_8f676c20-e33b-5f87-b135-e3e66263a14b.html
From the 5/12/15 4:22 pm comment citation: According to the WCSH-6, the infant suffered brain damage and she’s now quadriplegic, unable to see or hear. The poor baby, who is currently fighting for her life, has to be fed through a tube and is expected to succumb to premature death.
From 2/6/11: I would direct your attention to http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/magazine/06baby-t.html , an article regarding controversies surrounding shaken-baby syndrome. In the recent past I was involved in a case where the St. Paul Office of the Public Defender spent a goodly portion of its annual expert witness budget in hiring experts to refute a contention of non-accidental trauma. These included Dr. Ronald Uscinski, a neurosurgeon, and, I believe, Dr. Patrick Barnes, a neuroradiologist, both of whom are mentioned in the article (Dr. Barnes is reported as no longer taking fees to testify in criminal cases).
ReplyDeleteThe trial concluded with a hung jury. The defendant subsequently changed his plea to guilty. The defense had exhausted expert witness funds, so the usual horse and pony show would not be available for a retrial. The outcome of the case in which I was involved is at http://www.startribune.com/local/east/91979209.html?elr=KArks:DCiUtEia nDavcUiacvKUnciaec8O7EyUr
From 2/10/11: I do have a hint of how an innocent parent or caretaker feels in the face of an accusation of child abuse. My youngest daughter, when she was six weeks of age, fell from a baby seat carried by a sibling. She sustained a skull fracture and an epidural hematoma, which required drainage. Because of the nature of the injury, she was required to have bone screen X-rays and an ophthalmology exam. Although this was all conducted in a pro forma, matter-of-fact manner, one does not forget the feelings engendered. She did not have significant encephalopathy (she was somewhat lethargic), seizures, retinal hemorrhage or brain swelling. At ten years of age she is pretty zany, although whether this is constitutional or acquired, nature or nurture, could be debated.
ReplyDeleteI feel that in most instances of non-accidental trauma in which I have been involved I can opine with reasonable medical certainty that this was not, indeed, a catastrophic deterioration of a chronic subdural hematoma, a variant form of osteogenesis imperfecta, an undefined metabolic disorder or whatever theory de jour is proposed as an alternative to inflicted injury. As regards the who-done-it aspect, I consider that to be the district attorney's job and not mine.
On this Mother’s Day, like every other for the last seven years, Amanda Pijanowski is grateful for a simple smile or laugh from her son. Justin, now 7 year old, was shaken by his father at just one month old.
ReplyDeleteEvery day, Amanda visits her son at the only home he’s ever known, an around the clock care facility. Picture frames cover a shelf, the top drawer in the room holds photo albums, and there are colorful storage bins underneath the window...
When KETV visited Amanda and Justin two years later, the little boy, then a toddler, couldn’t talk, see or move on his own. Now, at seven years old, Justin looks much like other little boys, but he is blind, fed through tubes and immobile.
http://www.ketv.com/news/little-boy-shows-lifelong-impact-of-shaken-baby-syndrome/32924834
Doctors at a hospital found injuries consistent with abuse, police reported. The boy’s parents, Windi Johnson and Cory McGalliard, were arrested and charged with child neglect.
ReplyDeleteBlake suffered severe head injuries and was in a long-term care facility, a police spokeswoman said Thursday. An Oklahoma City police officer testified in 2006 that the boy was brain dead, according to court documents.
McGalliard pleaded guilty to child abuse in 2008 and received a life sentence. Johnson also pleaded guilty to child abuse and is scheduled to be released from prison in January, according to state Corrections Department records.Prosecutors could file new charges against the parents now that the child has died.
See more at: http://examiner-enterprise.com/news/state/boy-dies-injuries-suffered-10-years-ago-parents-may-be-charged#sthash.2KwTiriF.dpuf
From a clinic note: He was 2 months old when allegedly in a shower with his father who reported that he fell from his arms sustaining a blow to his head at the side of the bathtub and then bouncing out and hitting a walker. There was immediate unconsciousness and gasping respiratory effort for about 3 to 5 minutes…
ReplyDeleteFurther history obtained from father indicated a change in history with an admission of dropping the baby, but then shaking the baby because he was crying and the father was scared about dropping him to the point where the baby stopped crying with shaking. At the time of this evaluation, he remains in jail.
The Syndrome, a new documentary that will premiere in Denver as part of the Women + Film program at the Sie FilmCenter on Monday, June 1, will introduce you to the scientists and doctors who are standing up to the “junk science” that surrounds SBS, and is used to wrongly convict parents and child-care workers of child abuse. Over 1,000 people are in prison because of SBS-related cases, according to the filmmakers, with little proof that they — and SBS — were responsible for a child's death or injury. The film’s director, Meryl Goldsmith, will be at the Denver screening, and we spoke with her about tackling a subject of such importance and sensitivity...
ReplyDeleteWhen I started to learn about the problems with SBS, I couldn’t believe how much junk science went into convincing people that abuse had occurred when indeed it had not. There are thousands of people whose lives have been affected by something that can be adequately disproven, and I thought it was important to expose this issue and maybe prevent further tragedies from happening...
What is the most shocking thing you’ve discovered while working on this documentary?
The extent to which the SBS proponents go to prove their way, even when it’s false and their testimony is pulling normal, loving parents and family members out of homes and putting them in prison when no actual abuse has occurred. I remember just pausing the film and putting my head in my hands, just unable to understand any more how any of this can keep happening.
See: http://www.westword.com/arts/the-syndrome-explores-the-shaken-baby-myth-at-sie-filmcenter-monday-6756370
“It’s really a move from supposed certainty [about shaken baby diagnoses] toward acknowledgment of unknowns,” said Deborah Tuerkheimer, a Northwestern University law professor and author of “Flawed Convictions: ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ and the Inertia of Injustice.”
ReplyDelete“And those questions have accelerated,” she added...
Lawyers for McCarthy say the case fits the discredited shaken baby syndrome hypothesis. “This is a shaken baby syndrome prosecution,” they wrote. “That means it is a prosecution based on a scientific hypothesis that has crumbled over the last decade.”
The Massachusetts Medical Examiner has agreed to review all the medical files in an unprecedented step before the trial begins
The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome still has strong defenders but more and more cases are being thrown out.
Since 2001, approximately 200 shaken baby cases terminated when “charges were dropped or dismissed, defendants were found not guilty, or convictions were overturned,” according to a recent joint report by the Washington Post and Northwestern University’s Medill Justice Project...
However, there are still many defenders of shaken baby syndrome.
“Abusive head trauma and shaken baby syndrome are real,” said Cindy Christian, chairwoman of child abuse and neglect prevention at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “The science hasn’t shifted. It’s expanded, just like in every area of medicine.”
But Keith Findley, assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin and the co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, told the Globe the clear consensus around shaken baby diagnosis has crumbled.
“There is no gold standard diagnostic criteria for shaken baby syndrome,” he said. “The science is changing.”
See: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/New-expert-says-Boston-Irish-nanny-likely-innocent-of-murder.html
On the first day of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court the infant’s mother testified that her daughter was fine on the morning of March 28th, 2012 when she dropped her to the home of Sandra Higgins (34).
ReplyDeleteMs Higgins of The Beeches, Drumgola Wood, Cavan town, Co Cavan has pleaded not guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the baby at her home on March 28th, 2012. At about 4.30pm that day Ms Higgins had brought the infant to the emergency department at Cavan General hospital.
Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, told the jury they would hear evidence the child was suffering active seizures and had extensive bruising around the face and both sides of the head.
Opening the State’s case, Mr Gillane said a medical expert will say retinal haemorrhaging suffered by the infant was consistent with violent shaking injury which was not accidental.
The child’s mother told the court she went to the hospital after receiving a call from Ms Higgins from the hospital and told her the infant had had some kind of a fit or seizure. “She said [the child] was fine all day. She had a sleep. She had her tea. She just sat down on the floor to play and vomited and had a seizure,” the witness said.
She said when she got to the hospital her child was unconscious. “I was very upset. I couldn’t believe it. [She] had been fine that morning.”
She noticed the infant had a swelling between her eyebrows and asked the accused about this. Ms Higgins told her the infant had been fine all day and said she had not fallen or bumped her head. She told the mother that the bump between her eyebrows was from a different day, the court heard.
The witness said she was sure the bump was not there that morning. She said that over the next days the child was subject to a number of examinations and a doctor told her that the baby had two rib fractures that were three to four weeks old. There was also medical opinion that some of the injuries were the result of violent shaking.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/trial-hears-baby-suffered-brain-injury-from-being-shaken-1.2251207
Before she died as the result of physical abuse last week, 2-year-old Sophia O’ Neill suffered a torn liver, kidney and pancreas. Cuts to the inside of her stomach. A collapsed lung. Eight broken ribs.
ReplyDeleteThat’s a partial list of the injuries cited by the Hennepin County medical examiner in a second-degree murder charge filed Monday against Cody Feran-Baum, 17, of Minneapolis. According to the charges, Feran-Baum kicked Sophia in the back during a fit of anger while trying “to get her to stop” crying. When that didn’t work, he laid her face down on the floor and stomped on her back.
When asked by police how hard he kicked Sophia, Feran-Baum said, “It was, it was bad,” and then added, “I kinda snapped on her,” the charges say.
Sophia died after being rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center on Wednesday, less than a day after the kicking-and-stomping incident at Feran-Baum’s grandmother’s south Minneapolis home, where he lived, and where Sophia and her mother had been staying temporarily.
See: http://www.startribune.com/charges-expected-monday-in-death-of-minneapolis-2-year-old/307380571/
The next day at Brayden’s follow-up appointment, the pediatrician gave them some more startling news: Brayden had 15 fractured ribs. Keshia said that she was shocked, because he didn’t seem to be exhibiting any signs of pain:
ReplyDeleteShe told IJReview: “I broke out crying. I couldn’t even talk to her anymore other than to tell her I wanted to take him to [East Tennessee] Children’s [Hospital].”
Before the appointment, Keshia had received a call from the sheriff’s office, asking the family to come in. The Turners went to the sheriff’s office after Brayden’s appointment, where they were told they had to take Brayden to see Dr. Deborah Lowen, a child abuse specialist, at Vanderbilt Hospital.
There, Dr. Lowen found a total of 33 fractures in Brayden’s body, and said that Brayden’s symptoms matched that of Shaken Baby Syndrome: “The only way these fractures could have happened was for an adult to have violently squeezed and shaken him on numerous occasions,” Dr. Lowen said, according to Keshia...
Eugene Wilson, an expert on a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos, spoke with IJReview about Brayden’s case: “In the Turner case there are several factors that were not considered by the CA specialist that can have a direct bearing on this issue. To have an infant with that many fractures, the child would have suffered severe internal trauma.”
Wilson says that the fractures are “pathological fractures” that could be due to metabolic bone disease (also called rickets), connective tissue disorder, or bone tumors.
The Guardian reported on a similar case in London, England, in which a couple was acquitted of killing their 18-week-old son, Jayden. After the court found that he died of congenital rickets, which is a disease caused by Vitamin D deficiency in the mother during pregnancy, the couple regained custody of their second child.’’...
According to feature in the Washington Post, doctors have begun to challenge the way that Shaken Baby Syndrome is diagnosed during child abuse cases. Forensic pathologist Patrick Lantz said that trauma symptoms might not necessarily be due to child abuse: “If doctors see retinal hemorrhages, they say it’s abuse,” said Lantz, who has published four studies on the issue. “But it’s as scientific as a fortuneteller reading tea leaves.”
http://www.ijreview.com/2015/06/345705-parents-accused-child-abuse-despite-previous-medical-issues-prematurely-born-son/
Dr Julie Mack, who specialises in paediatric radiology, said that the bleeding she identified on scans of the child's brain did not represent the rupture of larger blood vessels associated with baby shaking.
ReplyDelete“These are the veins thought to be ruptured when you shake a baby and in this case there is simply not enough blood for a large vessel tear. It came from a smaller vessel,” the defense witness told the jury.
She said the bleeding on the membranes just above the brain could have been caused by bruising resulting from a bump on the head.
Under cross examination, she told Sean Gillane SC that the standard view is that when you shake a baby large bridging veins break into the space between the skull and the brain.
"It is a standard view, most people believe and are taught that when you shake a baby the veins break into the subdural space. I absolutely disagree with it.”
See: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/childminder-trial-bleeding-around-the-childs-brain-does-not-point-to-diagnosis-of-baby-shaking-us-radiologist-tells-court-31315025.html
Dr Hobbs, who specialises in child maltreatment, said he would have raised serious concerns about the bruising alone.
ReplyDeleteHe said the distribution of the bruises on the baby would have been extremely concerning because of the baby's age.
The number and sites were very unusual such as bruising on the padded area of the buttock.
A cluster of bruises on a baby's back along with two broken ribs was extremely unusual and normally associated with compression or baby shaking.
He said it was a "classic text book case of baby shaking". He also said bruising to the ear was very worrying.
He said the triad of finding of a brain bleed, retinal haemorrhaging and retinal detachment were all indicative of baby shaking but that the term baby shaking syndrome could also include some impact.
"The term has shifted from baby shaking syndrome to non-accidental head trauma. We don't know the precise mechanism, all we know is there is a level of violence involved".
A study he carried out in 2005 of 186 infants with subdural haematoma identified 106 as having suffered from abuse and only seven were accidental injuries.
The remainder were due to other factors such as disease or birth injury.
He also said there was no good evidence of "lucid interval" after a head injury such as this.
"It makes no sense to say that she was shaken the day before because her brain was damaged," he said.
During cross-examination, Dr Hobbs said shaken baby syndrome was more than a hypothesis and was well established over many years.
He said he believed the onset of symptoms was the most accurate way to establish the time of the injury.
It was put to him by defence counsel Remy Farrell that this could not be conclusive.
Dr Hobbs said it was not conclusive but it was the best guide they had. He said there was no reason to think that the brain would be perfectly all right and then suddenly become unwell.
He said the change in the baby will be an indicator of the time of the injury.
He did not believe there was any evidence to support a theory of a lucid interval or latent period between a head injury and the onset of symptoms.
"All we can say is that we don't think there is a period after the child is shaken when they are just fine and then the next day they collapse, we don't think that is what happens and we don't have any sound evidence for that."
Mr Farrell put it to him that there was "stark and bitter" disagreement among medical professionals about shaken baby syndrome.
Dr Hobbs said he had not experienced this but would not be surprised if there was because it was an emotive subject and doctors fall out just like other people.
Professor of Pediatrics at Temple Street Children's University Hospital Alf Nicholson said the constellation of injuries "was really quite consistent with abusive head trauma or shaken baby syndrome".
He said Temple Street had a lot of experience with these cases.
"It is a very difficult issue, a very emotive issue. I've been down this road many times."
Consultant radiologist at Cavan General Hospital Dr Val Gough said the CT scan of the baby's brain showed a subdural haemorrhage which was a high indicator of suspicion of a non-accidental injury.
He said he would not agree with Dr Julie Mack's view that the bleed was due to a chronic or previous condition.
See: http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0619/709240-sandra-higgins-court/
A UK neuropathologist has told the trial of a child-minder charged with assaulting a baby that shaken baby syndrome has no scientific validation.
ReplyDeleteRegistered child-minder Sandra Higgins (34) is alleged to have caused the injuries to the 10-month-old baby she was minding at her home. The trial has reached its final stages and closing speeches will be made before the jury on Tuesday.
Ms Higgins of The Beeches, Drumgola Wood, Cavan town, Co Cavan has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to intentionally or recklessly causing serious harm to the baby on March 28th, 2012.
Defence witness Dr Waney Squier told Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, she supported the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome up to 15 years ago.
“Only 15 years ago I too was making the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. I too was a believer in the belief that so many people in the area of child abuse believe in. I then began to question this,” she said.
She said she questioned it when a number of elements that supported the diagnosis were overturned by research. She said she began studying the scientific literature on the subject in great detail.
“I looked at many many cases of shaken baby syndrome,” she said. “I could no longer agree that this was a syndrome that had any scientific validation. I came to the view that I could not be sure this is a real syndrome.”
She rejected a suggestion from Mr Gillane that this represented a fixed view on her part. She said she has changed her mind in relation to the issue.
“We all have to be careful. We have to keep our minds open. I’ve changed my mind already,” she said.
She told Remy Farrell SC, defending, there was evidence of a pre-existing sub-dural haemorrhage in the child. She said this pre-existing condition would manifest in the baby’s head size, or the baby being irritable, not wanting to feed, losing weight or vomiting.
She said there were documented cases of babies who had inflicted injuries experiencing a “lucid interval” or a period of time after a head injury when a baby may be perfectly normal. She said in this case there was evidence of older damage.
“I think it is very dangerous to say because the child collapses at a certain time we know when the injury occurred,” she said.
See: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/uk-neuropathologist-rejects-theory-of-shaken-baby-syndrome-1.2258715
The trial has heard evidence that the child was fine that morning and during the day. Around 5pm, Ms Higgins brought her to Cavan General Hospital where she presented with a brain bleed, detached retina and fractured ribs. She had seizures for over five days.
ReplyDeleteThe prosecution alleges the baby’s symptoms were consistent with a violent shaking.
Doctors who treated the baby girl said it was highly likely that the injuries to the child happened while she was in the care of Ms Higgins and that the injuries were non-accidental.
Expert witnesses for the defence said the evidence was more suggestive of a head trauma and could have been the re-activation of an old injury...
In his closing speech Sean Gillane SC, prosecuting, told the jury that they should “stress test” the evidence of two expert defence witnesses. He said they were “hand in glove” sharing a fixed view about shaken-baby syndrome, which was contrary to all the medical literature.
He said that the evidence was that the child was a perfectly normal baby up to the time before the alleged assault.
“She was bubbly, she was babbly, she was playful. She was developing in every single respect you might expect,” counsel said.
He said the jury would have to ask themselves a simple question:
When did the child go from normal to abnormal and what does that mean to you?
Defence counsel Remy Farrell SC said that it is accepted that the injuries suffered by the child were non-accidental.
“The old injuries are wholly consistent with some trauma. It’s blindingly obvious whatever event occurred weeks before could have caused a subdural haemorrhage,” he said.
He told the jury that there was not a “screed of evidence” to support the “subtle implication” made by the prosecution that Ms Higgins had caused these older injuries such as finger tip bruises and fractured ribs.
He said that prosecution witness, consultant paediatrician Dr Christopher Hobbs, had said that a bruise on the baby’s ear was indicative of abuse. He said the child’s mother had very little to say about these bruises.
He said the jury should find it “downright odd” that Ms Higgins should have to explain these bruises when she was not the person to bathe the baby.
He said that nobody seemed to dispute that Ms Higgins was the one who advised the mother to bring the baby to the doctor when she was chesty. Counsel said:
Somebody who had physically abused a child, possibly fractured ribs, that person would recommend the child being brought to the doctors? It doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense.
See: http://www.thejournal.ie/childminder-trial-guilty-not-guilty-verdict-due-2178039-Jun2015/
According to the criminal complaint, the infant was taken to the Columbus Community Hospital for a checkup on June 11. The physician noted that the infant's head measured larger than normal. Officials said the infant had an MRI and ultrasound and the MRI revealed fluid collection in the boy's head, according to the criminal complaint.
ReplyDeleteThe physician reported the injuries were consistent with a shaken baby and that the infant could have long term vision problems from the injury.
A detective questioned the infant's mother about her son's injuries and she said that about two weeks before her son's four-month appointment, she noticed he was getting more "fussy" to the point where he was "inconsolable," according to the criminal complaint.
Officials said the mother stated that twice during that two-week period, she was called home by her husband, Raymond Koester. She stated that during the week after the four-month appointment, her husband called her home again.
According to the criminal complaint, Raymond admitted to shaking his son about seven to 10 days before the infant's doctor appointment. Raymond told authorities that his son became fussy and was crying so he picked him up and shook him about four times. Detectives said Raymond demonstrated, with a doll, how he picked his son up with two hands and shook him. Authorities said Raymond admitted there was another time he shook the infant, and it was in a similar manner to the first time.
See: http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Man-accused-of-shaking-4-month-old-infant-in-critical-condition-309604541.html
A Toms River woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for shaking to death the 14-month-old boy she was babysitting.
ReplyDeleteMichelle Heale, described by the child's parents as a "monster" and "evil," insisted she didn't harm Mason Hess in any way, but Superior Court Judge Francis Vernoia said jurors believed otherwise...
Heale, 46, contended at trial that Mason choked on some applesauce and that he may have been injured inadvertently as she was trying to clear his throat...
Before the judge imposed his sentence, Heale used part of her 15-minute address to Vernoia to rail against the medical theory of shaken baby syndrome.
"Innocent people are being sent to prison based on this flawed theory," she said. "This needs to stop."
Vernoia, who presided over Heale's trial, said her unwillingness to accept responsibility for her actions prevents her from addressing whatever issue she has that triggered her action the day Mason was injured...
Adam Hess said he has recurring nightmares and flashbacks about the events that unfolded after learning of his son's injuries. He said he went from feeling out of control as a father at not being able to help his son to feeling out of control as a husband at not being able to help his wife.
They took their first born off life support after two days, they said.
His cervical spine broken, Mason was wearing a neck brace and had "dozens" of wires attached to his head and a tube in his throat to help him breathe, Adam Hess said.
"Knowing he could not feel my kiss is something I have to live with for the rest of my life," he said...
During the trial, which ended April 17, Heale testified that Mason choked on applesauce. She told jurors she hit him on the back, brought him off her shoulder "quickly" without supporting his head, causing it to snap backwards.
See: http://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf/2015/06/babysitter_sentenced_to_prison_for_shaking_14-mont.html
See April 18, 2015 9:18 am above.
Repeatedly, injuries generated in a manner similar to what follows are quite minor in contrast to the devastating brain injury caused by shaken baby syndrome. See also comment above May 13, 2015 at 10:09 AM.
ReplyDeleteUNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Authorities in Pennsylvania say a nurse has dropped a newborn boy at a hospital, fracturing his skull. The baby's mother says a doctor told her the nurse was "drowsy." The hospital and Uniontown police say the 30-year veteran nurse at Uniontown Hospital was holding the baby at about 6 a.m. Tuesday when he fell from her grasp. Mother Jacqueline Hunt tells WPXI-TV that a pediatrician told her the nurse was feeding and burping her 1-day-old son "and she was drowsy and fell asleep and dropped him." Hall says he has a skull fracture but is expected to recover. The hospital says, "We are sorry that such a wonderful event has been overshadowed by an unfortunate situation." Police are investigating but say they don't believe criminal conduct was involved.
Read More at: http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/features/top-story/stories/nurse-drops-newborn-at-hospital-fracturing-his-skull-26834.shtml?wap=0
From the abundant offerings of TV crime dramas it is obvious that the law enforcement community has benefited from the advancements in modern science, such as DNA evidence.
ReplyDeleteBut in at least one area, law enforcement and the rest of the justice system seem to be lagging.
Introduced as a theory in the 1960s, for decades shaken-baby deaths were identified by a triad of symptoms — hemorrhaging in the eyes, subdural hematoma and a swollen brain — that were viewed as iron-clad medical evidence a child died of abuse.
But by 2006, medical experts around the world began questioning the symptoms as conclusive. Defendants began appealing guilty verdicts and winning based on flawed forensic findings.
Child forensic pathology expert Dr. Janice Ophoven has testified in several Alaska trials where people were accused of the shaking death of a child.
Failing to use board-certified forensic pathologists to review the forensic evidence, and failing to recognize that other medical conditions also present this trio of symptoms is causing innocent Alaskans to be tried, convicted and receive long prison sentences, she says.
“This is one of the worst miscarriage of justice cases I’ve had, but it is not the only case like it in Alaska,” Ophoven said of the Clayton Allison trial and conviction in his daughter’s death. Allison is set for sentencing Wednesday.
According to a review of shaken-baby cases by Deborah Tuerkheimer, a DePaul University law professor and author of the just-published book, “Flawed Convictions: “Shaken Baby Syndrome and the Inertia of Injustice,” 95 percent of people charged in shaken-baby deaths are convicted, and of those, 90 percent receive life sentences.
The prosecution is seeking a 40-year sentence — 30 to serve and 10 years of probation — for Clayton Allison. An appeal is planned, but that process will likely take years.
On Sept. 24, 2008, Clayton told police his daughter, Jocelynn, accidentally tumbled down eight carpeted steps, then struck her head on a chair with a file-box on top. She died of her injuries a few hours later at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.
But the jury in the Allison case never heard about the significance of the chair or the heavy box of files on top of it. Jurors heard about the child’s medical condition. They knew the baby was diagnosed with hypermobility.
But the judge ruled no one could tell jurors that Jocelynn’s mother had been diagnosed with a connective tissue disease — Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome — after her death, and that it could have a direct effect on the injuries she sustained...
But Ophoven, a pathologist, noted that falls are the No. 1 cause of child deaths, and that Jocelynn’s fall that September could have resulted in her death, especially given her existing medical diagnosis....
For Alaskans, this is an opportunity to call for reform to the process law enforcement and prosecutors use to investigate possible shaken-baby deaths.
http://www.frontiersman.com/opinions/editorials/time-for-a-change-in-shaken-baby-investigations/article_5e0ca280-2462-11e5-9baf-4bd4a8da207f.html
29-year-old Wilder woman was sentenced for felony injury to child on Wednesday after she admitted to violently shaking a baby boy while babysitting him.
ReplyDeleteSarah Kuiper-Boles, 29, was sentenced to four years fixed, followed by six years indeterminate, in prison.
Kuiper-Boles was arrested in February 2015 after an investigation by Wilder Police and the Canyon County Sheriff's Office revealed she had violently shaken a baby on several occasions between November 2014 and January 2015.
Kuiper-Boles admitted to detectives that she became angry and frustrated while babysitting the 6-month-old and violently shook him in a back and forth motion because he was crying.
She also admitted that after shaking the child on another occasion, his eyes rolled back in his head, his body went limp and he began vomiting.
When detectives asked Kuiper-Boles to re-enact what she did on a baby doll, she admitted she was scared to show how hard she shook the baby because she was afraid the doll's head would come off.
http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/crime/2015/07/01/wilder-woman-sentenced-for-disturbing-child-injury-case/29595923/
Something bad happened to baby Amy* and it wasn't an accident.
ReplyDeleteOn this much, but little else, the prosecution and defence in the trial of Cavan childminder Sandra Higgins agreed...
When Amy presented at hospital, the situation was grave: she had active seizures and her body was floppy.
She had extensive bruising, as well as head and facial injuries while tests also uncovered older injuries including fractured ribs.
Amy had, the trial heard, suffered a brain injury, detached retina and retinal haemorrhaging and had seizures for five days.
Doctors who treated baby Amy said her injuries were consistent with violent shaking, were non-accidental and that it was highly likely they had happened to her while in Ms Higgins's care.
One leading UK child abuse expert stated that it was "a classic, textbook case" of shaken baby syndrome...
Remy Farrell SC, who defended Ms Higgins, queried, however, how the prosecution could assert Amy was a perfectly normal child up to March 28 but was silent on the older injuries, including fractured ribs and fingertip bruises on her back.
The defence, which argued the evidence was more suggestive of a head trauma and the possible re-activation of an old injury, said it was not contending for accidental injury. And Mr Farrell urged the jury to acquit if they couldn't say conclusively what happened and if they had any doubt that Sandra Higgins inflicted the injuries.
For reasons we cannot know, the jury disagreed.
This is, perhaps, a reflection of disagreement in the medical arena on shaken baby syndrome.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/jurys-indecision-mirrors-that-of-doctors-on-shaken-baby-syndrome-31331154.html
Having personally watched at least 5 babies die of obvious parental or caregiver head trauma in 12 weeks while rotating on the Pediatric Surgery rotation as a surgical resident I caution against spinning the opposite "truth" that the medically abusive parent is usually rare. Sadly this is not the case.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/the-new-child-abuse-panic.html?_r=0 Comments MontanaMom
Testifying for the defense in the murder trial of Cabanayan’s father Shane Eric Hinkson, Dr. Joseph Burton told the jury that recent research has shown “pure Shaken Baby Syndrome” does not exist, because adults can’t produce the force needed to rupture veins in an infant’s skull to cause a subdural hematoma, or internal bleeding between the brain and skull.
ReplyDeleteBurton is not alone in that contention, as forensic pathologists and other physicians lately have expressed doubts about the diagnosis, saying other conditions can mimic the medical evidence once considered indicative of inflicted head trauma.
What neither they nor Burton doubt, though, is that if a baby being moved violently hits a surface that abruptly stops the motion, it can cause such sudden deceleration that the child suffers head trauma.
“You have to stop the head during the process,” Burton said, acknowledging also that the baby’s head needn’t hit a hard surface to sustain the injury: Slamming an infant down on a bed would do the damage.
Doctors who treated Cabanayan saw no external signs of the severe head trauma that was revealed by a brain scan. They noted only two small bruises under the baby’s jaw, one on each side.
During Burton’s defense testimony, he and attorney David Wolfe used a doll to demonstrate shaking an infant. In cross examining Burton, prosecutor William Hocutt IV used the doll, too.
With one hand under the doll’s chin, his thumb on one side and two fingers on the other, Hocutt demonstrated hurling a baby boy onto his back on a bed, and asked Burton if that could have caused Cabanayan’s injuries.
Burton agreed that it could have.
Hocutt has told jurors Hinkson, who was engaged to the baby’s mother and caring for the child on Jan. 1, 2012, became frustrated when Cabanayan would not stop crying and lost his temper, fatally injuring the infant. The mother said Hinkson called her at work at 1:55 p.m. that New Year’s Day to tell her “something bad had happened” and she needed to come to his Antietam Drive apartment to get their son.
The mother testified she arrived to find Hinkson standing in the kitchen with a gun to his head and the baby lying on the bed in the bedroom, moaning. The infant’s right eye was nearly shut, and one eye looked up while the other looked down, she said.
Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2015/07/22/3825079/murder-trial-defense-expert-dismisses.html#storylink=cpy
A MUM is taking on the Great North Run to raise enough money to buy a “virtual baby” to help educate other parents about the dangers of shaking small children. Jessica Stephenson, who runs the charity Charlee’s Angels, is hoping to start running information sessions for new parents on how to deal with stressful situations like crying in order to cut the risk of shaking babies.She started the charity, which aims to prevent more cases of shaken baby syndrome (SBS), following the death of her nephew Charlee Cameron, from Gainford, in 2011.She said: “It’s a really taboo subject so people aren’t educated about it but I think it’s important for people to know.“I’m sure a lot of people will think it doesn’t apply to them but people need to realise that when people shake babies they don’t set out to abuse that child.“It can be anyone and it could be someone who gets frustrated because of something like crying.“Learning coping mechanisms for crying is so important. I was 17 when I had my little boy and I used to hide in the corner thinking why is he crying, but I knew I had people to turn to who could help.”When the virtual baby is shaken parts of its head light up to show which areas would be damaged in a real infant. It comes with a programme which Ms Stephenson hopes to deliver in village halls and at events around Teesdale. She also plans to use the doll to make online educational videos which will be posted on the blog she has started to raise awareness about the issues. She added: “It’s something that would be incredibly hard for me to demonstrate with the doll but if it can save babies then that counts for something.”The doll costs £500, which she is hoping to raise by tackling the Great North Run in September.She will be doing the run with seven other family members who are also raising money for Charlee’s Angels.
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A prominent, but increasingly controversial child-abuse expert believes that a 3-month-old Danvers baby was shaken by an angry father hard enough to cause a brain bleed and other substantial injuries.
ReplyDeleteBut a defense expert testified on Monday that Dr. Alice Newton overlooked other possible causes of the infant’s subdural hematoma, retinal bleeding and head swelling, including what he believes is a hereditary condition.
Dr. Joseph Scheller (see comment May 1, 2015), a Baltimore pediatric neurologist hired by Daniel Green’s lawyer, said he believes the infant’s brain bleed was caused by pressure from excess spinal fluid that collected in the area between the brain and the skull, a condition called benign extra-axial fluid collection...
Prosecutors and police point to evidence that Green was increasingly unhappy in his marriage and frustrated with the baby, who was born prematurely at 35 weeks, as proof that, while alone with him on the afternoon of Nov. 27, 2012, he violently shook or threw the infant.
Newton, who at the time ran the Boston Children’s Hospital Child Protection Team, concluded that the infant’s injuries were a classic case of shaken baby syndrome, now called abusive head trauma.
It’s a conclusion, Newton testified, based on “clinical experience and judgment.”
But Green and his defense lawyer, Joseph Collins, say it’s the wrong conclusion.
http://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/defense-questions-shaken-baby-claim/article_e83af960-697d-512d-b89b-531c31dc14b8.html