Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Prevention and Conseqences in Tampa Bay: Graham Warren

In Tampa Bay, Florida 10Connects.com [WTSP] has a great report on the impact of Shaken Baby Syndrome on one family, and about prevention efforts.

The video embedded in the story is compelling, and well worth watching... Link
Susan Martin-Warren is a mother who is going through it right now. She was happily married with two young sons when in 2005 she got a call that would change all of their lives forever.

"He explained that he had found Graham limp, not breathing, white." Her 3-month-old son was rushed to the hospital. "Graham had to go into surgery at 3 o'clock in the morning to actually remove the blood clot that they had identified on a cat scan that night."

After three hours of brain surgery, the prognosis wasn't good. Susan says doctors explained that due to the massive amount of brain damage he suffered, it was likely that Graham would wind up in a vegetative state. It would be five days later before Susan realized her own son was a victim of child abuse at the hands of her husband, Tom Warren.

Especially timely in light of this report about a sharp increase in inflicted injury in Florida: Link
The Department of Children and Families says crimes against babies are up drastically.

I’ve have seen more shaken baby child deaths in the last four months than I saw in the first two years that I was here. Those are frightening statistics,” said DCF Secretary George Sheldon.

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