Falsely accused SBS/The Five Percenters

[Guest guest]

The following was sent to me by a friend and I told him I would post

it here in order to make people aware of his group for parents

falsely accused of SBS. His email is sbs5@...

Thanks, Jayne

" It is quite clear there is a consensus on this…with regard to acute

subdural haemorrhages in babies, if there are retinal haemorrhages

and other injuries, then this is child abuse. This accounts for

95% of cases. " - Professor Southall

Dr Bernard Knight, a senior forensic pathologist denied there was any

such consensus; " There are medically witnessed cases, not many of

them, of kids rolling off a settee or chair and getting a subdural

brain bleed….And saying 95% are due to NAI [non accidental injury]

still leaves you with the 5% that are not. How do we know in any

particular case whether it's the 95% or the 5%? "

These are the statistics according to most Doctors:

• 95% of `shaken baby syndrome' cases are proven

• up to 200 children die each year from `shaken baby

syndrome' in the UK

• in the very young infants, deliberately inflicted

injuries to the

head are believed to be the most common form of death

Since the trial and conviction for manslaughter of Louise Woodward,

Shaken Baby Syndrome has become a media star, like Sudden Infant

Syndrome (cot death) and Battered Baby Syndrome before it. All of a

sudden, the media are noticing babies allegedly falling victim to

this syndrome: first ph Mackin, shaken to death by his

childminder; then Louise Sullivan and now Manjit Basuta convicted of

shaking her 13-month -old charge.

But despite the fact that it was identified in the Forties and

clarified in the Seventies, Shaken Baby Syndrome remains a poorly

researched condition which embraces a range of symptoms where the

interpretation sets parents against doctors with appalling

consequences for children and families.

The criteria for diagnosis is that you would expect subdural

haemorrhages – bleeding between the brain and the inside of the

skull, bleeding behind the eyes and other injuries such as whiplash

that are consistent with the baby being shaken.

…/2

Professor Southall, of the Paediatrics Department at North

Staffs Hospital, has attracted some controversy by saying that there

is consensus on Shaken Baby and suggesting that if a child under one

comes into hospital with the first two symptoms but no sign of broken

bones, it is 95% to be a case of Shaken Baby Syndrome. `The other

five per cent,' he says, `are a questionable problem.'

Herein lies the dilemma. No imaging or clinical investigations can

differentiate with certainty between accidental and inflicted injury –

and even more difficult when, as sometimes happens, Shaken Baby

Syndrome is diagnosed on the basis of bleeding only.

Our son Riordan was diagnosed – incorrectly, as it eventually turned

out – as being shaken purely on the basis of subdural bleeding to the

brain. There was no retinal damage and no fracture.

The consensus amongst most Doctors is that, a subdural bleed, retinal

haemorrhaging and other injuries

are consistent with Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS).

• 95 families in the UK [43 in the US] have contacted us so far who

have been wrongly accused of shaking their babies

• 93 of those families only had one or two of the three criteria.

The Five Percenters was set up by my husband and I in August 1998

[after we were falsely accused of

shaking our son] to support and advise other families and to raise

public awareness about SBS amongst

parents and professionals. After four & a half years research we have

found the following known causes of

subdurals, eye bleeds and fractures in babies, which mimic shaken

baby syndrome:

1. Undetected birth trauma

2. Undiagnosed vaccine damage

3. Infection

4. Accident

5. Race

6. Blood disorders

7. Bone disorders

8. Metabollic/Toxic disorders

9. Missed Cot Death

Our aims and objectives

1. to put together 100 family cases of [wrongly diagnosed] SBS

2. to present the findings of our retrospective study of these 100

cases

3. to demand a public enquiry into brain injury in babies and how it

is diagnosed by doctors

4. to design and set up a database on that can be accessed by all

agencies involved in SBS

5. to get new guidelines for doctors to follow when diagnosing SBS

to get babies seen by paediatric brain, eye, bone and blood

experts within a hour of admission

6. to get better working practice amongst social services and the

police involved in a SBS investigation

SBS does exist but not in every case where there is a brain bleed.

The real purpertrators of this syndrome should be brought to justice

and the innocent families given back their lives.

[Guest guest]

Thank you for this! What an undertaking. SBS does come up a lot and my husband had to testify in court once against a "professional" that my hubby considered a dufus so even among the professionals there's dissension! I wish him luck and brilliance...

I am not a medical doctor,nor do I portray one on t.v.!(But my husband,Mike,is!!!)

Laurie>Bucyrus,Ohiomother to (13),Donovan(8),Buck(4),Luke(3), and (1)2 csecs,3 VBACs(1 partial waterbirth,1 complete waterbirth)

Please visit us at our websitehttp://www.goldenprideweb.com/drmikeandlaurie for information on nutritional supplements,including the original oral chelator, skin care,weight loss(The Florida Diet),Herbs for Health,and home products

----- Original Message -----

From: Jayne Lester Sergent

: Falsely accused SBS/The Five Percenters

The following was sent to me by a friend and I told him I would post it here in order to make people aware of his group for parents falsely accused of SBS. His email is sbs5@...Thanks, Jayne