Legal

When someone shakes a child, a serious brain injury called shaken baby syndrome can occur. This shaking is physical child abuse. A parent may become frustrated and grab the child by the arms and shake them.

The shaking causes the brain injury. Veins between the brain and skull are ruptured. This causes a subdural hematoma to form. This formation puts pressure on the brain and damages brain cells. If the brain swelling is not stopped, additional complications will begin and death will occur. Pressure on the brain stem can effect a childs breathing and heart beat.

Symptoms of shaken baby syndrome include vomiting, irritability, seizures, dilated eyes, coma, difficulty breathing, and death. Other symptoms may also be present. Abused children who survive this assault may suffer from paralysis, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and other serious complications.

Children Who Have Shaken Baby Syndrome Are Physically Abused Children
Child abuse is a serious charge. Children can receive serious brain injury without being shaken. They may experience injuries while falling off of a bed or out of a crib. Children have accidents. Before shaken baby syndrome is diagnosed, other possible causes for the trauma should be investigated. This investigation will help reduce the possibility that a parent is falsely accused of physical child abuse.

Have you ever asked what is SIDS? SIDS stands for sudden infant death syndrome. This is when an infant under 1 year of age expires suddenly and the death can not be explained. Even though an autopsy is performed the explanation for the death can not be determined.

The foremost cause of death in infants at this age is SIDS. The death will transpire when the child is sleeping. The child, up to the moment of death, appears to be in good health. If there is not a cause of death, then what is SIDS?

Before the cause of death for a child is stated as SIDS, there is an investigation at the scene where the child died. An autopsy of the deceased is performed. The family history is also evaluated. The parents may sometimes be falsely accused of causing the childs death. All possible causes of death must be eliminated.

What Is SIDS Causes
SIDS is accepted as a medical disorder. The diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome is extremely difficult for family members to understand because many questions are left unanswered. Parents often feel they could have somehow prevented the death. They often feel that they may have done something wrong. Were they not listening closely enough for sounds coming from the childs room? Did they harm the child by placing the child on his or her back or stomach? Should they have checked on the child sooner? What is SIDS? These are the types of questions that go through the minds of parents who lose a child to sudden death syndrome. The syndrome is not preventable. However, today it is believed that the risks of SIDS can reduced.

Sudden infant death syndrome is an unexpected death of an infant usually between 1 month and 1 year of age caused by factors that can not be determined. Death occurs usually occurs quickly while the child is sleeping. Children rarely die of SIDS before they are one month old.

Male infants die of SIDS more frequently then females. There are possibly up to 6,000 children a year who die from sudden infant death syndrome. There are more SIDS deaths in African American and American Indian children then in any other race. Hispanic and Asian families have the least amount of SIDs deaths to occur. The reason for this race factor is undetermined.

Sudden infant death syndrome is not diagnosed until all other possible causes of death have been excluded. An autopsy will be performed, the familys history is evaluated, and an in investigation is performed. Parents may be falsely accused of causing the childs death. Forensic science plays a major role in the investigation before the cause of death is determined.

Risk Factors of Sudden Death Syndrome
SIDS is unpreventable. There are risk factors that can be reduced. Prenatal care is important. The childs health during the pregnancy may be an influence. The position that the child sleeps in may be a risk factor. Exposure to smoke may play a role in increasing the possibility of SIDS. It is easy for a parent to feel that they were somehow responsible for a SIDS death. Parents may be able to reduce risks of sudden infant death syndrome. However, they should not ever feel that they are responsible or that they could have prevented the death.

A subdural hematoma is a brain injury. Bleeding and swelling cause this traumatic injury. The injury will produce pressure on the brain. This situation along with swelling of a bruised brain will cause damage to the brain. When the pressure extends to the brain stem, the patient may experience difficulty breathing, other complications to vital organs and death can occur.

A subdural hematoma can be treated with medications, which will reduce swelling. Surgery will relieve pressure caused by the injury. A computerized tomography scan or MRI will help in the diagnosis of the injury. The hematoma will also often be seen in x-rays.

A subdural hematoma is most a serious but common injury. They happen during falls and car accidents. They are often seen is accidents that include serious head trauma. Sometimes people are falsely accused of causing this injury to their children. This brain injury can cause serious brain damage to brain cells. The brain damage will occur quickly after the injury. When a person survives the injury, they may experience serious complications such as paralysis, mental retardation, epilepsy, and other serious conditions.

Other Causes for a Subdural Hematoma
Brain damage and death can occur from physical abuse. Abused children may be victims of shaken baby syndrome. The child may be firmly shaken as a punishment. This abuse will cause serious brain injury and possibly death.

Suggestibility is quite powerful. This occurs when people begin to believe that they remember events of a crime such as sexual abuse or physical abuse. Sometimes these cases may occur after hypnosis. They can also occur while someone is being questioned about a crime.

False memory syndrome plays a role in suggestibility. If adults tell a child that he or she was a victim of physical child abuse, after a while the child will start believing it. This sometimes occurs during a child custody suit.

Suggestibility can lead to parent alienation. During custody battles one of the parents may try to turn the children against the other parent. The parent may tell the child that the other parent touched the childs private parts or performed other sexual acts on them. Even though the child does not remember anything like this happening to them, after they are told this many times they will start to believe it.

Suggestibility May Cause to Be Falsely Accused
If you are victim of false accusations of child abuse, it may be due to someone telling a child that you did something you did not do. If your spouse has done this to your child, it is a form of child abuse. Talk to your attorney about your situation. Your legal representation will be able to help you find answers to questions about why you may have been falsely accused of a serious crime. You can also do some research on the Internet and read information that will help you talk to your attorney about your case.