Shaken Baby Syndrome : Bella Morris, 5th Period

                 On occasions you can turn on your television and hear about kidnappings, robbers, and murderers. Specifically children that have been murdered. Nothing turns the stomach like hearing about a nanny or babysitter killing a child that they were looking after. Unfortunately, that appears on the news more often than it should. Some people think it's out of complete frustration. The feeling of a baby not falling asleep or to hear them crying for hours can really push some people to their limits to literally shake the life out of an infant.
                 The term Shaken Baby Syndrome has been around of many years now. It's referred to as the "act of shaking the life out of a child," though now medical professionals refer to it as head trauma. The trauma is suffered inside of the body, leaving no bruises, scars, or broken bones. The shaking causes the inside of the head to bleed on the brain and eventually make its way to behind the eyes. Infants suffer this worse because of their head to body weight ratio. Many doctors doubt that the head trauma was due to an abusive care taker, its not that they doubt the abuse, its just that many children can suffer the same symptoms from different things.
                 Many people are now wondering if because of this syndrome, are their innocent parents or caretakers currently in prison? The first video that was ever released to create a name for the act was by a Massachusetts criminal named Louise Woodward. The 1997 murder trial, followed Woodward, an 18 year old British caretaker who shook 8 month year old Matthew Eappen so hard out of anger that he died in her arms. Woodward pleaded innocent and was later proven guilty of second degree murder and was sentenced to a prison term of 15 years to life. Later, a judge proved that the case was unjust and Woodward was sentenced for involuntary manslaughter. Many were out ranged to hear that Woodward was walking free on the streets of England. The case is now refereed to as the "nanny murder trial." As of 2013 about 1,500 children in the United States  (or four children a day) die from various forms of abuse or neglect. Nearly three fourths of the victims were under the age of 3. The name officially comes from Dr. Patrick Barnes, a neuroradiologist then at Children’s Hospital in Boston, now at Stanford University. “I was adamant that it had to be child abuse, shaken baby syndrome." I really hope that medical professionals will eventually be able to figure out if it was abuse or not. People that have killed children out of frustration shouldn't be walking free on the streets. Along with innocent people are in jail for doing no harm. If you don't like children, don't have them, or volunteer to look after them if you are sick enough to kill them for crying or as stated in Woodward's case, "not wanting to deal with it." But thats just my two cents.


Louise Woodward's Trial:

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/us/shaken-baby-syndrome-a-diagnosis-that-divides-the-medical-world.html?ref=us&_r=0