It was around 10 p.m., and Trenton was getting fussy. The three-month-old was convulsing like a worm in his father’s arms.
Nathan Humrighouse held him with outstretched arms, raising him just above his head. “Ssh, ssh, ssh,” Nathan chanted to his son.
But Trenton wasn’t having it. He wiggled out of Nathan’s grip and dove directly into his face. The fall startled both father and son.
Nathan, a 31-year-old nurse, carefully examined Trenton. Though he appeared to be fine, he called his wife, Monica. She too was a nurse, working the night shift at Canton’s Aultman Hospital, having just returned from maternity leave.
A doctor told her to bring the baby in, just to be safe.
That’s when a CAT scan revealed that Trenton had suffered a subdural hematoma — bleeding within the Saran-wrap-like lining of the brain. “We knew what it was immediately,” Monica says. “We knew how serious it was, what kind of brain damage it could cause, and we were shocked and upset.”
Since Aultman didn’t specialize in working with infants, Trenton was transferred to Akron Children’s Hospital.
Doctors and nurses did their best to console the visibly shaken parents. “The ER physician told us that children recover easily from this,” Nathan says. “He even said that his son had suffered a subdural hematoma from birth.”
But they were also warned that whenever infants arrive with head injuries, it’s required that the hospital investigate the possibility of child abuse.
As Trenton underwent more tests, his parents met with social workers and nurses, telling their story again and again. “They all told us it was nothing out of the ordinary,” Nathan says. “And we were fine with it. We were glad they were being so thorough.”
Trenton was kept overnight for observation. His parents never left his side.
The following day, the couple met with Dr. Daryl Steiner, a lean man whose salt-and-pepper beard creates an air of physician’s distinction.
Steiner pulled the couple into a separate room. He didn’t ask questions, didn’t offer consolation. Instead, he stared coldly at Nathan and accused him of abuse.
Nathan’s story didn’t jibe with Trenton’s injury, Steiner said. The only thing that could cause a brain to bleed like that was if Nathan violently shook his son. This was, 100 percent, a case of shaken-baby syndrome, he informed the couple.
Steiner ordered Nathan to leave the hospital immediately and to have no further contact with Trenton. The couple would have to meet with Stark County Child Protective Services.
Monica burst into hysterical tears. “It was bad enough that our son had a serious injury,” she says. “But to be accused of causing it?”
Dr. Steiner has seen some horrific things in his 31 years at Children’s Hospital. He’s treated kids burned beyond recognition, bloodied babies who’ve been slammed against walls, infants who’ve been squeezed so tight, their ribs were crushed into shards of irreparable bones. So he dedicated his life to protecting defenseless children.
He began his career at Children’s, a fat slab of concrete that dominates Akron’s skyline. By 1991, he was appointed director of the hospital’s Children at Risk Evaluation Center, better known as the C.A.R.E Center.
At the time, it was just a small part of Children’s emergency-room operations. But in Steiner’s hands, it quickly became one of the most respected child-abuse centers in the country. He built his own staff and perfected its evaluation process.
At the same time, a newly discovered phenomenon was drawing much attention in the field.
For decades, infants had been turning up in emergency rooms with brain injuries — but without any visible signs of trauma. In the late ’60s, doctors determined that this condition could be caused by the simple act of shaking a baby. It wasn’t until 30 years later, however, that medicine christened this mysterious malady with a name: shaken-baby syndrome.
Soon, hospitals nationwide were launching public awareness campaigns, warning anyone in reach of a baby about the deadly effects of shaking an infant. In Akron, there was a time when you couldn’t drive down Market Street without seeing a billboard showing a smiling child next to the slogan “Never, Never, Never Shake a Baby.” Steiner was behind it all.
Among the movement’s most vociferous advocates, he devised a special evaluation process for suspected cases.
First, the child is given a CAT scan for brain trauma. If bleeding under the brain lining is discovered, Steiner then looks for bleeding behind the eyes. If both conditions are present, he then interviews the parents.
There are few causes for a brain injury of this kind, he believes — a bad car crash, a serious fall — or, most likely, violent shaking by a perturbed parent. “I think it’s an extremely violent event — nothing approaching the normal handling of a child,” Steiner says.
If the parents’ story doesn’t match up — or they simply don’t have a story to tell — Steiner’s diagnosis is abuse. “I have never had a caregiver come to me and say, ‘Well, I threw the baby up against the wall,'” he says. “And the child can’t tell me either. It’s only after the investigation that the confessions come.”
In the past 25 years, he’s diagnosed at least 275 infants with the syndrome.
“It’s a very agonizing decision,” he says. “I have to be 100 percent correct, because if I diagnose a child as abused and it’s not, it’s as damaging to the child and the family as if I return a child to an abusive environment. The ramifications of my diagnosis are huge.”
Unfortunately, Steiner has been wrong — on more than one occasion.
LeAnn Dunkle sits at her dining-room table, surrounded by her husband, parents, sister, and two daughters.
She’s wrapped in a cozy beige cardigan, her youngest daughter tight at her chest. “I wish I never knew how easy it is to lose your children,” she says. “And it is so easy.”
LeAnn and her husband Dan stumbled across this unfortunate truth last July. The family was preparing for a camping trip. As LeAnn packed the hot dogs and diapers, Dan strapped their three-month-old daughter Rachel into a mobile car seat and placed her on a table.
He went about his preparations, then suddenly heard a loud thump and crying. He ran to find his three-year-old daughter, Becca, standing over her little sister, who was now laying face first on the floor, the car seat on top of her.
Dan quickly looked Rachel over. Nothing was bleeding or broken. “After about five minutes, she calmed down,” Dan says. “She was scared more than anything.”
Still, the Dunkles wanted to be safe. They called Rachel’s pediatrician, who said she was more than likely fine, but if they wanted, they could take her to the emergency room.
The couple made the 30-minute drive from Wadsworth to Children’s Hospital. A CAT scan revealed a subdural hematoma. “We had no idea what that meant,” LeAnn says. “So when they said her brain was bleeding — that feeling, it was terrifying. The whole room got long and narrow quickly.”
Rachel was kept for observation. LeAnn spent the night with her, while Dan went home to watch Becca.
The next day they switched places. That’s when Dan met Dr. Steiner. “He said, ‘100 percent shaken baby,'” Dan says. “He said the only other things that could cause it were a 35-mph crash or a three-story fall.”
Steiner ordered more tests. For the next two days, the family waited patiently through numerous MRIs, eye exams, and the scrutiny of social workers.
Steiner finally returned with his diagnosis: 100 percent shaken-baby syndrome.
“But that’s impossible!” LeAnn shouted. She threatened to leave with Rachel, but was told she’d be arrested. It would be best if she left the hospital voluntarily. She collapsed in grief, but helplessly agreed to go. “We thought that if we just cooperated, it’d all be over quickly,” she says.
Dan called LeAnn’s parents, who arrived at the hospital to watch over Rachel.
A few hours later, Medina Children Services arrived at the room, where the infant lay asleep in her grandmother’s arms. “You’re not taking this baby,” Maureen Sega told them.
But it was no use. They were armed with a court order. The social worker pried Rachel from Sega’s arms and disappeared. “It was one of the most horrible days of my life,” Sega says.
The following week was a nightmare. Rachel was placed in foster care, her family clueless as to her whereabouts. LeAnn and Dan endured harsh questioning from social workers, who parsed their every word. “I asked them if we needed a lawyer,” LeAnn says. “And the social worker says, ‘Do you think you need a lawyer?’ It was always guilty until you could prove yourself innocent.”
Finally, Sega and her husband, who live next door to LeAnn and Dan, got temporary custody of Rachel.
Over the next four months, the Dunkles could only have supervised visits with their daughter. LeAnn often found herself peering through the window into her parents’ house, pained that she wasn’t the one rocking her little girl to sleep.
Three-year-old Becca suffered pangs of guilt, worried she’d be taken away too. “She was so scared,” LeAnn says. “She’d say, ‘Sorry I hurt Rachel. Will I have to go away too?'”
For the first time in their lives, the Dunkles had to hire a lawyer. They enlisted Bill Whitaker and his daughter Andrea. As the Whitakers built their case, LeAnn and Dan’s lives were thrown into total flux.
“They split us apart,” says Sega. “It felt vindictive. It was like how much pressure could they put on you until you snap?”
Finally, last October, their hearing in Medina County Juvenile Court took place. The Whitakers arrived with an arsenal of doctors, medical journals, and character witnesses to battle Steiner. It worked.
Dan plays the voice mail that LeAnn left for him on November 2 — the day they got their daughter back. “She’s not abused!” LeAnn exclaims over the phone.
As the Dunkles celebrated the return of their baby girl, the Humrighouses prepared for the worst.
Steiner had accused both couples of abuse within weeks of each other, but the Humrighouse case stretched on for twice as long.
After Nathan was ordered to leave Children’s Hospital, Stark County Child Protective Services placed him under a no-contact order. Monica and Trenton moved into her mother’s house.
For the next seven months, Nathan wasn’t allowed to see his son without a social worker present. He missed most of Trenton’s firsts, from sitting up to crawling. The joy of Thanksgiving and Christmas was replaced by separation and loss. “For those seven months, he didn’t know me,” Nathan says. “He was completely uprooted from what he knew and where he lived.”
Then, a day after Christmas, things took a turn for the worse. Nathan was indicted for child endangerment, a second-degree felony. Steiner was the prosecution’s only witness. “Steiner had told them that it was, absolutely, abuse,” Nathan says. “He said it needed to be prosecuted in criminal court.”
For the first time in his life, Nathan found himself in jail. He was placed on leave at Aultman Hospital and faced a prison sentence of two to eight years. “I was terrified,” he says. “I felt like we had to prove our innocence, rather than the other way around.”
As his hearing approached, Nathan and Monica remembered reading about the Dunkles’ case. They contacted Bill and Andrea Whitaker.
By this time, Bill Whitaker had become something of an expert on shaken-baby syndrome as well as Dr. Steiner’s methods. “Frankly, Dr. Steiner is not up-to-date on the research that’s been done as to the cause of subdural hematomas,” the lawyer says.
Whitaker took Trenton’s medical records to Dr. Ronald Uscinski, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Georgetown University and an expert on subdural hematomas.
Uscinski concluded that Trenton’s bleeding wasn’t a result of shaken-baby syndrome. It wasn’t even caused by the accident. It had been there since the day he was born.
Uscinski points to the way an infant’s soft skull adjusts to the shape of the mother’s birth canal. In the case of traumatic births, many babies’ skulls will shift severely enough to cause cranial bleeding. It’s a common side effect of the birth process that can sometimes cause severe brain damage, but usually results in little more than a cone-shaped head, just like Trenton’s.
Medical records also showed that Monica had been in labor for 22 hours before Trenton was free of the birth canal. “It’s more likely than not that he got it from birth,” Uscinski says. “It’s not unusual. Surgeons have known this is common for a century or more.”
Trenton’s CAT scan from June — the same scan Steiner used to make his charges — cemented Uscinski’s thesis.
The scan shows a mixture of new blood and old, distinguished by varying color and density. “Often time, children will suffer a rebleed in the months after their birth,” Uscinski says. “It can be caused by literally nothing. A baby can simply cry and have a rebleed.”
On February 1, Uscinski said as much at Nathan’s criminal hearing. His claims were backed by Dr. Geneiso Serri, the Aultman emergency-room doctor who saw Trenton on June 29.
“We didn’t suspect abuse,” Serri said. “Any child under the age of one gets a CAT scan, because we’re finding more and more brain injuries resulting from minor trauma. You’d be shocked by how the most trivial trauma causes subdural hematomas.”
The only voice of protest was Steiner’s.
He said he knew of Trenton’s difficulties at birth, but ruled them out as a cause. He insisted that the only possible cause of Trenton’s injury was abuse. “The father says they bumped heads,” he said. “That’s nothing, that’s trivial. The mere fact that he had a bleed showed this was serious.”
But the court didn’t find his argument convincing.
A few days later, Judge Lee Sinclair threw out Nathan’s case. The Humrighouses were finally reunited.
Two months after their reunion, the couple is getting used to normal life again. “Trenton’s just now starting to sleep through the night,” Monica says. “It was a rough adjustment.” These days, he’s an active toddler, insistent upon walking by himself, even though he falls every few feet.
The couple has no bitterness toward Steiner or Children’s Hospital. They’re simply relieved to be together again. “It made us realize that family is all that’s important,” Monica says. “I just thank God that [Trenton] will never remember this.”
But when they share their tale with others, they’re not greeted with the same forgive-and-forget resolve.
“A lot of people tell us that they’re afraid of taking their own kids to the hospital when they have accidents,” Monica says. “It’s scary for people to think how much power they can lose and how much power one person can have over their lives. I hate to say it, but I probably wouldn’t take [Trenton] to Children’s ever again.”
The Dunkles say their story elicits the same reaction. After a friend’s kid took a spill, he started heading to Children’s — until he thought of the Dunkles’ story. He turned around, afraid of being accused of abuse.
“Everyone kept telling us, ‘Dr. Steiner is never wrong,'” LeAnn says. “But he has been wrong — at least twice. It’s scary to think of how much authority these doctors have. One person shouldn’t be allowed to decide the fate of our child.”
Steiner can’t comment on specific cases. He acknowledges a legitimate debate over the causes of bleeding on the brain. But he continues to stick by his methods.
“The idea that somebody can make a definitive diagnosis on very minimal evidence — it’s of great concern,” Bill Whitaker says. “If parents are going to be misdiagnosed and accused of abuse, it’s a huge concern.”
This article appears in Apr 18-24, 2007.
In response to Guilty Until Proven Innocent. Abuse of children really does happen. It is an extremely serious problem. Unfortunately, there also have been numerous fabricated cases, made up by children or by parents, and sometimes misdiagnosed by child health care professionals whose opinion is accepted as infallible. It is these crimes against children that more innocent people are falsely accused. It is exactly because of this high number of inaccuracies that our legal system must be scrupulous in safeguarding the rights we all possess. The law stipulates that we must err on the side of the defendant rather than the accusers – and your narrative will corroborate that this is especially important with only a single diagnosis. Perhaps the answer is a required independant second opinion before charges can be made. We cannot guarantee justice for children who suffer at the hands of pedophiles and child abusers until we rid the system of false and unfounded allegations of abuse. This is a difficult concept for people to accept, but this is the way our Constitution attacks the great evil of false convictions. I speak for the side of the innocent victim because a falsification and the subsequent cover-up ruined my life and business.
I am so thankful for this article, and the person that wrote it! There are many of us out here who have been falsely accused…some are done, some aren’t. Those of us who aren’t are sitting and just waiting….not knowing what our future holds. I wonder many times what it is going to take to get Dr.’s and lay people to realize that there can be MANY reasons for injuries like this…and not just child abuse! For those of you who are finished,…praise God! For those of us waiting…keep praying!
Thanks for publishing such a great article!!! We were falsely accused of SBS over ten years ago, it is still a mystery to us WHY this happened as the CT scans show not one shred of medical evidence to support such a claim! We spent thousands on an attorney, lost custody of our older son, because of some doctor that obviously did not have the expertise in reading scans of the brain- she was actually a cardiologist. Thankfully, our case was dismissed and never went to trial, but the damage was done. Just like the victims of the terrorists attacks we the falsely accused will never get over it! If they were so concerned for children and families why did they not offer any help, support,etc. after they found they were very wrong. It’s doctors like Steiner that need to get in touch with the science swirling around this SBS Myth! There are plenty of peer reviewed articles available DO YOUR RESEARCH DOCTORS! belinda
I would like to comment that SBS is NOT a Myth…As the mother of a shaken baby I can assure you of that fact!!! While I am not saying that EVERY brain bleed is caused from SBS…I am saying that it DOES happen…and way too often! I KNOW it happened in our case as my child’s abuser admitted to shaking her…so please so not go around telling innocent readers that SBS is a myth because you are spreading false statements, and the more false thoughts that are being put into peoples heads, means more and more child abusers going free all the time…someone WAKE UP and think of these poor innocent children who did not deserve to have their brains scrambled at the hands of an angry adult!!
I’m seriously concerned about the lack of “Editorial Justice” that this article portrays.
The defense medical expert, that is quoted in this article, is one of the most maverick in the nation and collects one of the most egregious fees for testifying, in my opinion, with the express purpose of getting an acquittal regardless of the cause of the injury or the outcome of the injury.
“Frankly, Dr. Steiner is not up-to-date on the research that’s been done as to the cause of subdural hematomas,” the lawyer says.
Is an attorney qualified to make this kind of statement? I doubt it, when it comes to medical issues in a court of law, Attorneys tend to parrot and repeat what they have heard from individuals that are favorable to their cases. There has been a lot of research not only in the past but also currently and knowing Dr. Steiner’s work, he is full aware of all of the materials. Perhaps a visit to the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome would be appropriate: http://dontshake.com/
Whitaker took Trenton’s medical records to Dr. Ronald Uscinski, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Georgetown University and an expert on subdural hematomas.
I think that this would be at best, a questionable source, as I have stated above related to Dr. Uscinski’s historical position related to SBS cases for the past 8 years. Perhaps Dr. Uscinski would like to address the position statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics listed below? Perhaps the Cleveland Scene should have asked that question of Dr. Uscinski.
PEDIATRICS Vol. 108 No. 1 July 2001, pp. 206-210
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS:
Shaken Baby Syndrome: Rotational Cranial InjuriesTechnical Report
Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect
Shaken baby syndrome is a serious and clearly definable form of child abuse. It results from extreme rotational cranial acceleration induced by violent shaking or shaking/impact, which would be easily recognizable by others as dangerous. More resources should be devoted to prevention of this and other forms of child abuse.
I have to say that I don’t know of a single inmate in our prison system that doesn’t claim to be innocent regardless of the nature of their crime and few actually admit to SBS with the exception of fathers.
Perhaps it would be important for the Cleveland Scene to also post story links from the multiple other Ohio newspapers that do address Shaken Baby in it’s “reality” since Ohio has what appears to have an extremely high occurrence rate.
You might also want to look into the Ohio Legislative piece that is being introduced related to Prevention Education for your state, I didn’t see that anywhere in the newspaper’s article. http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText127/127_SB_144_I_Y.pdf
I would like for everyone at the Cleveland Scene Staff, to take a look at the pictures & stories of the precious little ones…afflicted by Shaken Baby Syndrome, that can be found on the Children of SBS website; http://www.children-of-sbs.com/ and look into the eyes of those innocent victims, as they represent the victims of an abuse that is nearly 100% of the time inflicted by a care provider because they were crying…..which is what babies do. They cry because they don’t have any other means of communicating and adults need to recognize that it isn’t okay to shake a baby ever no matter how frustrated or angry that they are.
I would also suggest that it would behoove the Cleveland Scene to research the side of SBS that they failed to cover in this story, AND recognize that April is “Prevent Child Abuse Month”, “Victim’s Right’s Month” and in many states as well as the Nation…the 3rd Week of April is “Shaken Baby Awareness Week”, I’m not sure that posting this story on the Friday ending that week was in really good taste particularly as it relates to those that are suffering from the devastation of this very viable clinical syndrome and widely accepted form of child abuse.
One of the Ohio Child Abuse Prevention Organizations recently posted in an article that 10-12% of all child abuse fatalities is caused by “Shaken Baby Syndrome”! Children die and they are left with massive neurological devastation related to shaking and the cost to our society is in the billions of dollars…perhaps your readers should hear that side of the story as well…..Just a Thought!
We are now another one of those families Dr. Steiner is going against. We are loving wonderful parents. Our beautiful six month old baby girl accidentally fell out of my husband’s arms, onto a carpeted floor. He was holding her with one arm, it was an accident. There was no abuse. Dr. Steiner always says abuse. He is not a G-d, and we will find another “specialist,” to look at the medical records and state the TRUTH! That my baby girl’s injuries could, in fact, have happened from a fall. Dr. Steiner has his reputation to maintain. He does not care who’s lives he ruins. He always says 100% abuse, ruling out the possibility that it could have been an accident. My baby was not crying, my husband did not get mad, she simply wiggled out, and fell out. We are not minimizing SBS, Steiner did not even diagnose that. He called it “abusive head trauma.” Why did he put “abusive?” It was head trauma due to the fall. IT WAS AN ACCIDENT. Dr. Steiner has seen real cases of abuse, but he does more than err on the side of caution. He rules out the possibility of it EVER being an accident. He always blames the parents, he has never met us before. We are loving wonderful parents. Our children are separated from us. So unless you have walked in our shoes, HOW DARE YOU JUDGE? Our baby’s injuries(she is doing fine) are condusive to an accidental fall. And the truth will come out. And Dr. Steiner, who I think is Jewish like me, will have to answer to our G-d. How does this man look at himself in the mirror?
Well here we go again does SBS happen or does it not!! Is Dr Uscinski a maverick or is he a caring surgeon? When will all the fingerpointing stop. The case I have been involved in happened in 2000 and the male sitter was convicted of culpable negligence and is serving 15 years. I was poisoned by the DA I only knew what they told me. Recently I picked up a copy of Medical Veritas ? not sure about the spelling and read more about this case and what has happened since this mans conviction, I was shocked to learn everything that had happened in the pregnancy medications the mother was given etc etc and even the fact the child received his baby shots when he had a temperature of over 100 degrees. Has my mind changed yes, what has happened to this man to the best of my knowledged he is still in prison and I do know Dr. Uscinski testified for the defense and he made so much sense about what happened, but this man was still convicted. Who really cares about the National SBS group, they are witch hunters and they have blinders on . Look at the bad press about Dr. Alexander and his testimoney which is paid for by the DA’s as well
After reading this article and posted comments I would like to offer my feelings on this topic. Most importantly, I feel that preventing child abuse and educating the public in preventing it are very important issues. The focus of the article however was not to negate advocates in their quest to educate and prevent abuse, but to chronicle the events that two families faced when they were unjustly accused of child abuse.
I followed the suggestion of Pamela Rowse and researched resources that she cited. I went a step further and read many of the numerous topics and papers on SBS available to anyone on the internet. It seems to me that there has been current research done on SBS that refutes the commonly believed cause of SBS. (The condition was named about 30 years ago.) Could it be that newer research offers a different insight into the causes of some subdural hematomas and SBS. Because someone does research that shows results that contradict older theories, it does not make them a “maverick.” In fact I found in several courts, the “newer theory” is being used – not just by the defense. I also read about the Kierra Harrison Foundation which has mission to educate about SBS and child care dangers. The contact person listed is Pamela Rowse. I applaud their efforts in their mission, but I think the other side of the story also needs to be addressed – those who are unjustly accused.
Although most instances of child abuse are correctly diagnosed, there are those that are not. Just as in all walks of life, mistakes in judgment or diagnosis are sometimes made. Whether it is in medical field or in the legal field etc., it can and does happen. Just think about the 3 Duke lacrosse players who suffered through a year of humiliation and agony for something that they did not do. So many jumped on the bandwagon to proclaim their guilt, yet they perservered until the truth was known.
I look at these two families and can’t imagine the Hell that they went through, but they too perservered. If any one of us were accused of something that we were not guilty of, would we not also fight to maintain our family. The agony of being separated from their families is unimaginable to me. In a situation like this, the agony and ramifications are not confined to just their household, but impacts the extended family, friends, and co workers. Wounds heal but the scars never go away. Damage is done.
As quoted in the article, “I have to be 100 percent correct, because if I diagnose a child as abused and it’s not, it’s as damaging to the child and the family as if I return a child to an abusive family. The ramifications of my diagnosis are huge.”
As I interpert from this article, it seems that both of the families involved know what is most important in life- being together as a loving family.
I feel the article was very well written. I believe there is a horrible form of abuse that causes Shaken Baby Syndrome and I hope the education being done will help increase prevention. However, I also feel the diagnosis/accusation of Shaken Baby Syndrome needs further investigation and should not be based on a medical diagnosis alone. There are cases that the presence of subdural hematomas and retinal hemmorhages are caused by an angry adult shaking a baby but that is not the only cause and this is where Dr. Steiner is wrong in his accusations. Medicine is rarely “100%” and subdural hematomas and retinal hemmorhages DO NOT always equal Shaken Baby Syndrome. There are numerous cases to document this fact. The one comment made mention of the article in the American Academy of Pediatrics dated July 2001. This is almost 6 years old. There has been a tremdous amount of research since that date. Physicians and Child Service organizations involved in investigating abuse need to be current. The cost for innocent families to defend themselves against false aligation can be astronomical and sometimes devasting, not only financially but also mentally. I commend Scene Magazine for investigating and reporting this aspect. I pray that there is an awareness of the need to change a “100%” diagnosis without the supporting facts. Families’ time with their children are too precious to be snatched away and lost forever by inaccurate information.
Pamela Rowse tries to villify Dr. Uscinski by calling him a “Maverick”. This is the all too common approach by those that don’t have substance to back their arguments. Perhaps Pamela Rowse should assist Dr. Uscinski in surgery and could therefore witness a subdural hemorrhage rebleed; with minimal or no trauma (spontaneously). You know, the varying densities seen so often on CT scans of these “abused brains” that illustrates old an new hemorrhage. You know, the kind Steiner and ilk claim are indicative of a history of repetitive abuse. Perhaps she and Steiner can then explain why a study a few years old found 9% of babies to have subdural hemorrhage (Whitby E. et al. Frequency and natural history of subdural haemorrhages in babies and relation to obstetric factors. Lancet 2004 363: 846-51). This study only to be trumped by another, just published, which found up to 26% of infants aged 1 to 5 weeks had varying sizes and locations of intracranial hemorrhages: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan07/neonates013007.html Now add in all the preemies or babies with complicated pregnancies, birth and medical histories with the fact that these hemorrhages can rebleed and you end up with a host of misdiagnosed abuse victims and torn apart families.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the vast amounts of medical information that is ignored and not ruled out as a differential diagnosis by the child abuse experts.
Let’s have a glimpse at the “father of SBS”…Dr. Caffey. I’m sure Pamela Rowse knows of him. Perhaps Pamela can answer the questions in this link:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/328/7451/1309#65204
And those questions don’t even address the fact that Caffey misused Ommaya’s whiplash studies on monkeys, when he extrapolated Ommaya’s data to his own. The unbelievable part is how gullible the medical community was as they bit Caffey’s articles…hook-line-and-sinker.
I could list upwards of 20 studies that show short falls can be fatal and result in subdural hemorrhage, retinal hemorrhage and brain swelling. And, yes many of these have lucid intervals.
Perhaps Pamela Rowse can tell us how a baby can be shaken with forces equivalent to a 35 mph motor vehicle accident or a multi-story fall, but have no neck trauma; let alone other overt signs of trauma. Recent biomechanical studies prove this issue which is really only common sense (Bandak 2004, Ommaya—Goldsmith 2002 etc.).
Lastly, Pamela Rowse instructs us to visit the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome so we can be “up to date”. There are some serious problems with this one such as: 1) Dr. Chadwick—listed as a member of the Inernational Advisory Board—is about as polar as they come. Chadwick’s “studies” of short falls are commonly cited by SBS proponents. Unfortunately there is no discussion of the biomechanics of the falls; the behaviors prior; during and following the falls; the part of the body impacted; differences among impacted surfaces; did something brake the fall; was it a free fall; was it translational or rotational; where is the medical history …? Chadwick’s study had a fatality of several stories that was found outside a multi-story window, but no one knew how the infant got there. Chadwick, himself, states that his data is absurd in that it shows short falls are more likely to be fatal than long falls. The double standard is clear as he claims the care-takers descriptions of falls are biased and unreliable, but then accepts whole heartedly their descriptive “confessions” as scientifically reliable. Confessions likely borne out of lengthy and threatening interrogations. I have seen this type of medicine dubbed as Confession Based Medicine (CBM) (Chadwick DL, Chin S, Salerno CS, et al. Deaths from falls in children: How far is fatal? – J Trauma 1991;13:1353-55). Then in 1994, Chadwick is quoted in an article stating “given the availability of prompt and appropriate medical care, falls contribute minimally to deaths in childhood. Death from a fall is now considered very unlikely when the fall is less than 20 feet, and accumulating experience may soon extend that.” (Chadwick DL. Falls and Childhood Deaths: Sorting Real Falls From Inflicted Injuries. The APSAC Advisor 1994 Vol, 7 No, 4:24-25). For more information on Chadwick and other members of the International Advisory Board (i.e. Mary Case and her debunked “position paper”) listed on dontshake.com, visit http://freekenmarsh.com/ You will find Chadwick as the main child abuse “expert” discounting the facts that the child, who had a pre-existing medical condition, fell onto a brick fireplace hearth. Chadwick thought this was rubbish and proceeded to send Ken Marsh, an innocent man, to prison for 20+ years for killing a boy, he loved, via SBS. Well, Ken Marsh is now free thanks to good Dr’s like the ones Pamela Rowse calls Mavericks.
dontshake.com also has a judge (Honorable Rodger Dotson) on the Governing Board. Now if that doesn’t seem like a conflict of interest, I’m not sure what is.
dontshake.com also provides a link to a response signed by Robert Reece (another International Advisory Member) and 105 cosignators. But it fails to also show all of the rapid response letters and a letter which counters their letter and is signed by 41 doctors and scientists.
That is how well dontshake.com is objective, keeps you “up to date” and tells you the “other side of the story”.
I would like to thank the author of this article as it is a rarity these days to see an article with objectivity that goes against what some perceive as the popular choice (which is often found to be laced with dogma).
Bravo, Camille!
I hope that more of these type of articles are written and people start to see that there are many other reasons for the injuries that mimic SBS. My family too, has been falsely accused of SBS. The doctor called it SBS even before the a MRI was completed. The seizures went on for 24 hours and there was a lot of swelling and damage done to the brain. Even when the parents of the child told doctors of the strange episodes that proceeded the seizure, and the inability of the infant to tolerate a prone position at all, the doctors refused to listen. It has destroyed my daughters business and stained her reputation, besides costing thousands of dollars in lawyers fees.
No one is saying that abuse happens, sadly it does, but the numbers of SBS are just too high for every case to be abuse. There needs to be more scientific research done in this area.
I pray for all the children who have been affected by this mythical diagnosis and the people wrongly convicted. The worst part is that the very people who say they are protecting the children are the ones who endanger them the most. The accusing doctors stop looking for the true cause of the child’s problems once a diagnosis of SBS has been made. I thank God that doctors such as Dr. Uscinski are finally coming forward to fight for better diagnostics for these children. If we do that, there won’t be any wrongfully convicted parents or caregivers. Our children deserve better medical care than they are getting when the doctors immediately jump to SBS for the cause. I also feel sorry for the people who have commented on this article that are so short-sighted they can’t see the truth. I pray that you will not ever be in the same situation.
There have been serious attacks on the SBS Community as well as the National Center related to the validity of “shaken baby syndrome” in not only the article published in the Cleveland Scene, but the most recently circulated AP article nationally related to “SBS and the debate”.
I have been personally attacked and I feel that it is essential that I respond. But I am responding not only as a grandmother of a shaken/shaken impact grand daughter, but also as a professional who has dedicated the last 10 years of her life to preventing this type of injury and subsequent outcome for any family.
I would like to ask not only the individuals that have posted comments to the Scene, but also those SBS soothsayers/mavericks who claim that SBS doesn’t exist a few very simple and fundamental questions. I would hope that there would be some collaborative common sense applied for all readers, but particularly those individuals testifying irresponsibly and those who support them without having full knowledge of not only the syndrome, but the devastating clinical and physiological factors that impact infants/babies/children who are shaken to make them stop crying to stop and think.
I ask the defense experts these questions:
1. Are you willing to publicly announce that any care giver can shake an infant/baby/child to quiet their crying and there will be no untoward effects?
No one has been able to do that to date. If you find a problem in a product, an intervention, or any other clinical issue, you publish the information. Haven’t yet seen anything in this arena.
2. Would you communicate to your own family or caregivers of children in your family that it is okay to shake an infant/baby/child to quiet them?
Well you won’t get an affirmative response related to this since absolutele none of the mavericks would in anyway say to their spouses, their children or their grand children, it’s okay to shake because “nothing will happen”..you can do it to stop them from crying because it’s very effective….shake them they go to sleep and it’s okay.
3. Would any of the Medical Experts that testify that SBS doesn’t exist and that it is a fabrication, like to address the Harizat incident in the 1990’s, and the Middle Eastern War, where an adult male who was much smaller that his captures/torturers was shaken to death? AND how that resulted in a change in the Geneva Convention related to what is allowed in interrogation as “shaking is considered torture”? OR that Researchers are seeing the same events and clinical presentations in our female domestic violence victims….”SDH, RH etc”
Most of them probably don’t have a clue about this issue because their focus is on their premise, their position and their finances.
4. Let’s do some common sense and reality here. If short falls, falls from arms, falls from a couch, falls from a dressing table, falls from a counter resulted in critical or life threatening events in infants/babies/toddlers how many cases would present in the emergency departments every year with seizures, altered levels of consciousness or even death?
Okay, we cleared that one…if that happened, then we wouldn’t have a population perpetuation would we.
Most of our children would die before they reached the age of 1. However, they do reach the age of one in the majority of case…so…that means a couple of things… short falls don’t result in significant injury and our defense experts are extrapolating irresponsible events to prove their cases.
I would ask any individual that had a child who had a fall regardless of distance to remember what the outcome was? Maybe a bruised impact site (not seen in kids with SBS) an altered level of conscious, acting weird, not like they should act for their age or activity (always seen in our SBS kids) Just think about what really happens in our babies lives.
One of the things to remember is: “Ain’t cruising you ain’t bruising” and if a baby is shaken and doesn’t show outward signs of bruising? It’s probably because babies have a very deep layer of “baby fat” and it takes a long time for that fingerprint or hand bruise to surface and to be visible….unless you are using ultraviolet photography which the majority of law enforcement agencies don’t have the monies to obtain, you probably won’t see them until it’s too late.
5. Would the Defense Medical Expert witnesses please explain how, between the 1930’s and the late 1990’s the Bio-Medical Engineers claimed that the “bumble bee” could not fly? Then, in the late 90’s a very ingenious Bio-Medical Engineer from Cornell University, who applied physiology to the picture and researched as to how it did happen instead of trying to prove that it didn’t happen uncovered the secret…? Physiology!!!!!
The early studies by the defense expert physicians related to skull fractures resulted from a study that was done by a pathologist who threw dead babies on the floor off of the autopsy table…well of course the skull was going to fracture…it no longer had any “fluid in it”…not a good clinical example of what happens with babies that are alive when they are shaken or tossed or slammed.
Let’s let our experts apply the same clinical and appropriate physiology to this issue instead of trying to prove that it can’t happen. By the way, the bio-mechanical engineers can’t still figure out how the trees get the water transferred from the ground to the leaves….go figure…do you think that they can effectively figure out what happens in a infant/baby/child brain when it is shaken?
I doubt that there is any money in that, but there is a lot of money in testifying in an SBS case for the defense.
When we hold our Medical Expert Witnesses in criminal cases to the same standard that the AMA holds Medical Expert Witnesses in civil Malpractice cases in our nation then we will have a more valid system. For civil cases, you testify outside of your specific area of expertise…you really run the risk of professional suicide.
Just My Humble Opinion…..Kierra’s Nana Pam
“Pamela S. Rowse, RN, Las Vegas Nevada”
My heart breaks for the parents going through this. I’ve been there, done that. When my son was 6 months old, my (then) 6-year-old daughter accidentally broke his arm (by “helping” him roll over). I had left the room for maybe 30 seconds…..and I’ll forever feel guilty for it. It’s bad enough when you think about what happened and how you could have changed it and what you would have done differently. But never….NEVER….was it intentional or done in anger or frustration– It was just an accident. And the fact is that accidents DO happen. I totally understand that doctors have a responsibility to get to the bottom of a case like the ones mentioned in this story. I was grilled at the hospital too. It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever gone through. Luckily, the doctor I saw knew that I was telling the truth and that my story matched my son’s injury. It still didn’t make me feel any better, though. There has got to be a better way of weeding out the true abuse cases from the accidents. My heart goes out to these families.
In doing research for my case I ran across this article. 3 years ago I had a foster child who was 3 yrs at the time. He had only been placed with me for 3 weeks. He also suffered a subdural hematoma with retinal hemorrhages and absolutely no marks, bruises, nothing. The first hospital he was taken the ER doctor said it was not abuse and the CT scan revealed a mixture of different densities of blood also which the radiologist said was a sign of a chronic bleed but 1 week before trial after the prosecution got hold of him changed his mind and refused to voluntarialy testify even after he stated he was 100% sure it was chronic and if he were wrong he would loose his license. The child was then flown to Childrens where as you guessed, was diagnosed as abuse with no previous or current medical history ever reviewed or any testing for underlying medical conditions. The neurosurgeon ( DR. Ken Winston, who has been sued at least twice for misdiagnosing child abuse) said at trial there was no need to do testing because with his experience it was abuse. However, in my case the prosecution provided 3 doctors from Childrens to testify. The first,Dr. Winston, still to this day does not know what I supposedly did or how I supposedly did, he just believes it was abuse, they never said shaken baby in my case they just did not believe it was accidental. The second Doctor, (DR. Sirotnik) could not testify as to intent “it would be impropper” he said and admitted if blood testing were done yes they possibly could have found an underlying medical condition and refered any other questioning to DR Winston.The third Dr. an opthamalogist wrote in a medical report before trial that the injuries to the child could have been caused by a simple fall on the stairs and then when it was time to testify at trial along with her cohorts from Childrens Hospital said the injury was massive and could only be caused by a 3 story fall or auto accident just as the other two Doctors from Childrens testified. In their Medical reports before trial these Doctors never mentioned 3 story fall or car accident just that it was LIKELY Non- Accidental.The biological parents family history of domestic abuse, meth use and previous abuse could not be admitted as Judge ruled beyond the scope. The jury instruction was clear that in order for a crime to be committed a person must commit an act prohibited by law with intent. Both elements of the crime have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. I was found guilty of 3rd degree chlid abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, sentenced to 15 years in prison Jan 26, 2006. At sentencing the trial Judge told my attorney the appeal was not frivolous that in fact there was no cause or mechanism of injury and granted me an appeal bond. My husband and I were unable to have children and thought thru foster care we would be able to help abused and neglected children have a better start in life. We are the most loving, compassionate people and love children and this is where I sit today. We have foreclosed on our home, I have lost my career, lost our vehichles, have claimed bankrupcy, out thousands of dollars and owe even more and wondering how we are going to come up with the money now for an appeal, all because These Childrens Dr’s around the country are playing GOD! I now struggle daily wondering about my future and praying every minute knowing I serve a mighty and just GOD and vengence is his. The humiliation, pain, suffering, assasination of my character and reputation, and to have to watch my family suffer with me is unbearable at times and only Gods Grace and Mercy are holding me together. My parents are 65 and 74 years old and never in my wildest dreams thought at their age woul have watch their daughter go thru this and them having to go thru the stress at their age worried sick for their child. This SBS epidemic has to stop!! These Childrens hopital Doctors are the ones who should be prosecuted. After trial we found new evidence that this child had suffered 2 previous head injuries before being placed in my home. The prosecution denied knowing about the medical records and the biological parents had taken their children to so many different hospitals and was not telling anyone. The paternal grandmother let the cat out of the bag and the info fell into the hands of our investigator. At sentencing we filed a motion for a new trial based on newley discoverd evidence and the Judge denied it. So please pray for us that the appellate court will hear the evidence. If anyone can offer us advice or help in anyway please contact us. I will be praying for all of you in the same situation. Lets find a way to stop these Doctors from making off- the-cuff child abuse allegations with little to no evidence to support them.
False accusations….? I don’t think so !
In the entire history of documented medical research, no other cause, disease or illness causes this type of brain trauma. The brain gets scrambled, blood vessels get sheared and all this causes swelling and damage to the brain. It is the rapid whiplash-type of acceleration-deceleration mechanism that does it. It is a deliberate form of child abuse. SBS happens when a child is strongly shaken, thrown or slammed down, even on a soft surface such as a bed or sofa. It takes a tremendous amount of force to do this, and it is done by a very very angry person who loses it.
It doesn’t happen from a fall from a chair or a table. We’ve all seen babies with mild bruises who have survived these small injuries.
The difference with SBS is that usually there is no external bruising. Exceptions would be the child was hit or grabbed real hard and swung, resulting in finger bruising, rib fractures or leg or arm fractures.
SBS usually happens to infants and toddlers. But children 5 and up have also received this type of shaking/slamming/throwing. It can lead to death, severe dibilitation or it can also be an on-going form of abuse.
Brain damage always occurs, in mild shakings, on-going shakings or severe shakings. The mild damage results in learning disabilities and behavioural disorders. The physical damage can be blindness, autism, cerebral palsy, mild to severe retardation, inability to ingest food, etc.
Think twice before you pick up a child in anger. Call someone. Close the door. Walk away. No baby ever died or suffered brain damage from crying. Take parent effectiveness classes. Don’t have unreasonable expectations from the child. Remember, you were a child too, at one time.
Remember this too… It’s never okay to shake, slam or throw a baby or child.
The point of this article was that two individuals were falsely accused of child abuse. The article states that the doctor said it was a 100% case of SBS. The information provided by medical tests showed subdural hematoma resulted. Subdural hematomas can be caused by many types of injuries or as in this case, during the birth process. A subdural hematoma does not always result in long term or permanent injury or neurological deficits. My hopes and prayers are for these families are that the pain and suffering that they were forced to go through does not leave them with permanent scars.
Dr. Steiner only likes to diagnosis kids with abuse because he is a member of the Helfer Society. It is a group that doctors can belong to. In this group the more abuse cases a doctor finds the more he moves up in the rankings in this society. Dr. Steiner also did this to my family. In court he testifed he works more in the “abuse” trials than anything else. He gets paid for them. Not to mention this little society he is in. He should be ashamed for the lives he’s ruined with his false accusations. Don’t take your kids to Akron Children’s Hospital because if you cannot explain the injury your child sustained your automatically accused of abuse. The truth will come out and your wicked ways will catch up with you Dr. Steiner.
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News of the Day … In Perspective
5/2/2007
“Shaken baby” syndrome being questioned
Convicted of first-degree reckless homicide and 10 years into an 18-year prison sentence, baby sitter Audrey Edmunds is seeking a new trial.
Edmunds was the last person with 7-month-old Natalie Beard when she developed symptoms and died. Although there were no external signs of abuse, autopsy showed retinal and intracranial bleeding of a type often seen with a ruptured aneurysm. The child had reportedly had an ear infection and vomited a few days before. Edmunds said she had put child, who seemed unusually fussy, down with a bottle and gone to attend to other children. When she went to check on Natalie, the girl was crying and limp, her face slick with regurgitated formula.
Dr. Robert Huntington III, the forensic pathologist whose testimony helped to convict Edmunds is now questioning the diagnosis.
If the trial were held today, Huntington told The Associated Press that “I’d say she died of a head injury, and I don’t know when it happened.” In 1996, he told the court that the injury had occurred within two hours of being treated, thus while she was in Edmunds’s care.
He changed his mind because of a similar case in which a child had a lucid interval of more than 15 hours after the injury and before the onset of symptoms.
Last year, a judge in Manatee County, Florida, barred the use of the term “shaken baby syndrome” because of its probable prejudicial effect on jurors.
Kentucky Circuit Judge Lewis Nicholls decided he could not admit expert testimony on a theory whose foundation may amount to “merely educated guesses” as to the cause of death.
I have also had problems with Stark County CPS. They ruined my life. My only crime is that in 1985, immediately upon my discovery, I reported my husband and father of my 2 children of sexual abuse. He signed a confession. Fast forward to 2005, I want temporary custody of my 2 grandchildren long enough for my daughter to get back on her feet after the breakup of her 10 year marriage and the eviction from her apartment. Because of 1985, I wasn’t even considered. Instead, without prior notice and without giving any of us (not even my daughter, the mother) the right to an attorney, all rights were taken from us and I haven’t seen them in over two years. Meanwhile, my ex-husband, the confessed child molester, was given sole custody of two small children from his second divorce by the same people who think my grandchildren are better off being raised by strangers when they have willing relatives begging for justice.
Tember, he remembers what happened. God was there with him, and that is the only reason he is with us today. Drone on, tell the lies, but there are those who know the truth.
Seems that Dr Steiner is 100% not the expert that he claims to be.
And since the standard for proving malpractice is whether or not the care was appropriate by “industry standards”,and since many of the other experts are saying that Steiner is woefully outdated in his medical knowledge on this issue,I’d say he 100% deserves to have his ass sued off by at least 2 families.
The real tragedy in this is,of the 275 cases he claims to have diagnosed as SBS,how many of those families were torn apart for good,someone going to prison in most cases,because they had never heard of the Whitakers,or someone like them?
Or they just couldn’t afford to pay that kind of legal expense?
I’d say he 100% needs to retire,he’s past it.