thedrifter
10-30-08, 08:32 AM
Defense witness: Shaking didn’t kill baby
Doctor tells court that trauma to Marine’s child began during birth
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, October 31, 2008
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Lance Cpl. James J. Boston’s 2-month-old daughter was not a victim of shaken baby syndrome, a medical expert witness for the defense testified Wednesday.
Boston, 22, is accused of murder in the death of his child earlier this year. During the first 2 ½ days of his court-martial, six Navy doctors and two medical examiners who performed the child’s autopsy said Tahirah Boston died of injuries inflicted by violent shaking.
James Boston was alone with his daughter the afternoon of Jan. 28 when she stopped breathing, according to testimony. She was resuscitated and rushed to a local Japanese hospital, but she never regained consciousness and died Feb. 10 at the U.S. Naval Medical Center in San Diego.
The eight doctors agreed that the baby’s damaged brain, caused by a lack of oxygen due to bleeding, along with bleeding in her eyes and eight fractured ribs were inflicted that day by violent shaking.
Dr. Ronald Uscinski, a Maryland neurosurgeon who has testified for the defense in more than 100 cases in the United States, took the stand Wednesday afternoon and said the eight were all wrong.
He said there was something in the computerized tomography, or CT scans of the baby’s brain, that the prosecution’s witnesses missed — an older injury to the brain.
"There was fresh and old blood" in the subdural cavity of the brain, he said, suggesting the original injury occurred during birth.
"They have to navigate a narrow [birth] canal, and their heads are compressed and they bleed," he said.
Many babies suffer subdural hematomas at birth, he said, but added, "Most heal within a week."
But Tahirah’s injury did not heal, he testified.
"There’s a natural mechanism [within the skull] to absorb the blood," Uscinski said. "That did not happen in this case for reasons I don’t know."
In the months that followed, the bleeding continued, swelling Tahirah’s brain and eventually starving it of oxygen, he said.
Uscinski said shaken baby syndrome was a controversial "bogus diagnosis" in alleged child abuse cases. He said there was no scientific evidence to prove a human can shake a baby hard enough to cause brain injuries without also damaging the neck. There was no damage to Tahirah Boston’s neck, according to court documents.
On Wednesday morning, Capt. Tamara Grigsby, a Navy doctor whose specialty is child-abuse pediatrics, testified that she also reviewed all of the medical records in the case and came to a different conclusion.
There was no indication of any prior injuries or health problems, she testified. The injury was inflicted the day Tahirah was brought to the hospital, she added.
"She sustained a traumatic brain injury that led to a coma and subsequently death," she said.
Boston, assigned to the 7th Communications Battalion, has been in the Camp Hansen brig since his daughter’s death. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
The court-martial is expected to last through Friday.
Ellie
Doctor tells court that trauma to Marine’s child began during birth
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, October 31, 2008
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Lance Cpl. James J. Boston’s 2-month-old daughter was not a victim of shaken baby syndrome, a medical expert witness for the defense testified Wednesday.
Boston, 22, is accused of murder in the death of his child earlier this year. During the first 2 ½ days of his court-martial, six Navy doctors and two medical examiners who performed the child’s autopsy said Tahirah Boston died of injuries inflicted by violent shaking.
James Boston was alone with his daughter the afternoon of Jan. 28 when she stopped breathing, according to testimony. She was resuscitated and rushed to a local Japanese hospital, but she never regained consciousness and died Feb. 10 at the U.S. Naval Medical Center in San Diego.
The eight doctors agreed that the baby’s damaged brain, caused by a lack of oxygen due to bleeding, along with bleeding in her eyes and eight fractured ribs were inflicted that day by violent shaking.
Dr. Ronald Uscinski, a Maryland neurosurgeon who has testified for the defense in more than 100 cases in the United States, took the stand Wednesday afternoon and said the eight were all wrong.
He said there was something in the computerized tomography, or CT scans of the baby’s brain, that the prosecution’s witnesses missed — an older injury to the brain.
"There was fresh and old blood" in the subdural cavity of the brain, he said, suggesting the original injury occurred during birth.
"They have to navigate a narrow [birth] canal, and their heads are compressed and they bleed," he said.
Many babies suffer subdural hematomas at birth, he said, but added, "Most heal within a week."
But Tahirah’s injury did not heal, he testified.
"There’s a natural mechanism [within the skull] to absorb the blood," Uscinski said. "That did not happen in this case for reasons I don’t know."
In the months that followed, the bleeding continued, swelling Tahirah’s brain and eventually starving it of oxygen, he said.
Uscinski said shaken baby syndrome was a controversial "bogus diagnosis" in alleged child abuse cases. He said there was no scientific evidence to prove a human can shake a baby hard enough to cause brain injuries without also damaging the neck. There was no damage to Tahirah Boston’s neck, according to court documents.
On Wednesday morning, Capt. Tamara Grigsby, a Navy doctor whose specialty is child-abuse pediatrics, testified that she also reviewed all of the medical records in the case and came to a different conclusion.
There was no indication of any prior injuries or health problems, she testified. The injury was inflicted the day Tahirah was brought to the hospital, she added.
"She sustained a traumatic brain injury that led to a coma and subsequently death," she said.
Boston, assigned to the 7th Communications Battalion, has been in the Camp Hansen brig since his daughter’s death. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
The court-martial is expected to last through Friday.
Ellie