THE SHAKEN BABY FICTION
by Walter Last
In May 2019 the Queensland Parliament passed a new child killer law. Under this new law convicted child killers whose callous disregard for their victims resulted in death will be jailed for life. Other governments are expected to follow this progressive step to protect our children. But why does this new law fill me with deep sadness when it is so good for children? I will explain.
The Shaky Science of SBS
A large and increasing number of babies are presumed to have died from being violently shaken so that there was bleeding in the brain and eyes. This is called the Shaken Baby Syndrome or SBS. In the US there are about 3,000 such incidents reported per year in which about 1,000 babies die. Usually a parent or carer deemed to be responsible for the shaking is charged with murder, carrying a prison sentence for life. However, in most instances this can be reduced to manslaughter with a much shorter prison sentence if the accused confesses to the shaking. No surprise then that many of the accused confess.
When I tried to find scientific evidence for the reality of SBS I could not find any. On the contrary, the available evidence, including medical research, shows that it does not exist! SBS is typically diagnosed by a “triad” of symptoms: bleeding in the retinas of the eyes, bleeding inside the brain (subdural hematoma), and brain swelling.
Pediatric neurosurgeon Dr Norman Guthkelch proposed the theory of SBS in 1971for its similarity with whiplash injury (1). It was assumed that the weak neck and relatively large head of a baby would make it especially susceptible to brain bleeding caused by shaking.
This theory was not supported by any research or experimental evidence, and there were no unbiased witnesses to confirm the shaking in cases of SBS. Nevertheless, the medical system soon adopted this speculative theory as a medical fact, and the judicial system, without asking for evidence or facts just followed the powerful medical system.
It did not make a difference to medical experts or their judicial followers that in the 1980’s a medical research team tried and failed to provide experimental evidence for the SBS theory. These researchers concluded that violent shaking alone was not able to cause the observed injuries in a healthy baby. (2)
Dr Buttram wrote about a study of SBS: 1. All occurred in fragile infants born from complicated pregnancies, such as prematurity, low birth weights, drug/alcohol problems, diabetic mothers, or other maternal complications. 2. All infants were 6 months or less of age. 3. Onset of signs and symptoms occurred at about 2, 4, or 6 months of age, within 12 days of vaccinations. 4. All infants had subdural hematomas. 5. Some had multiple fractures. (3)
With sufficiently strong shaking of babies to produce bleeding in the brain there should also be extensive injuries to the neck and neck vertebrae as seen in whiplash injuries, but in presumably shaken babies such neck injury tends to be rather mild or absent. Further, there seems to be a lively discussion about the reality of the SBS in the journal Forensic Science International about an article called: Shaken Baby Syndrome: A flawed biomechanical analysis. (4)
All of this is not reflected in the courts where parents are routinely convicted as if the SBS were a fact. How this operates at present can be seen from some real life cases described in Time Magazine where it is just assumed with circular reasoning that the triad of bleedings and swelling in brain and eyes is evidence or proof that the baby has been shaken. (5)
A recent review at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm concluded: “This review showed there is insufficient scientific evidence on which to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the triad in identifying traumatic shaking (very low‐quality evidence). Furthermore, there is limited scientific evidence that the triad and therefore its components can be associated with traumatic shaking (low‐quality evidence). As valid knowledge is necessary to determine whether or not an infant has been violently shaken, future research requires that circular reasoning be avoided when classifying shaken baby cases and controls.” (6)
The Real Baby Killer
It has already been known for 250 years that vitamin C deficiency as seen in scurvy can produce bleeding in the brain. The first medical report of this was published in 1668 and has been confirmed in countless reports since then, for instance in this early review of historical cases in 1932 (7) or in this recent scientific paper with the title: “Vitamin C Depletion Is Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage Risk Factor”. (8)
The medical profession also has a fiction about vitamin C: it believes that it takes a long time, such as several months, for scurvy to become symptomatic. Also that it is extremely rare in first world countries, but this is not so with severe stress and strong infections. It appears that injections of vaccines cause severe brain stress and can instantly deplete the low vitamin C stores of a baby. This is followed by a latent period of about 2 weeks before major symptoms develop.
How rapidly vitamin C can be depleted in stressful situations was illustrated by the following incident: Dr Riordan was a leading vitamin C researcher. After receiving a spider bite on the thigh he could no longer detect his usually high vitamin C blood levels. It took 5 days of daily intravenous injections, each with15 grams of sodium ascorbate, until his vitamin C blood level was again detectable, but it still remained in the deficiency range for several more days. (9)
Dr Archie Kalokerinos worked in the remote Australian outback with Aborigines living on a defective diet based on white flour and sugar. He found that every second child died as a result of vaccinations. Because deaths commonly occurred about 3 weeks later, they were not recorded as being vaccine-related; officially such reactions were “wisely” deemed to occur only for up to 2 weeks after vaccination, some are only accepted for up to 3 days.
He also related that the death rate of aboriginal infants in the Northern Territory of Australia had suddenly doubled in 1970 and went even higher in 1971 to reach about 50%. After a long time of trying to find the likely cause of this unusual phenomenon he suddenly remembered that the Minister of the Interior had told him: “We have stepped up the immunisation campaigns.”
By working together with the pathologist Dr Glen Dettman it was found that the affected babies had scurvy or extremely low vitamin C levels. Dr Kalokerinos eventually solved the problem by giving babies high doses of vitamin C before and also after vaccinations as required, and no more vaccination deaths occurred. Also Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS disappeared under his care.
Dr Kalokerinos continued to encounter ridicule and hostility from medical colleagues, while parents were still wrongly imprisoned, and their babies were and still are needlessly dying. Nevertheless, Dr Kalokerinos was able to appear as medical expert for the defence in a shaken baby trial and managed to keep the accused parent out of prison. Linus Pauling (2 Nobel Prizes) wrote the foreword for his book “Every Second Child” (10), followed in 2008 by “Shaken Baby Syndrome: an abusive diagnosis”. (11)
Together, Dr Dettman and Dr Kalokerinos wrote many articles to educate nurses, in addition also a scientific article that they published about their experiences (12). In addition, Dr Dettman wrote a wide range of scientific articles about other pathology subjects and as a result of this work was awarded the Australian Medal of Merit in 1978.
An interesting article about present SBS conditions in Australia is by the former police officer Chris Savage (13). Dr Viera Scheibner, a retired researcher in micropaleontology, has done much to show the facts connecting SBS with scurvy and subsequent vaccine injury but, like others, could not make much headway because the vaccine industry and its agents, with the support of governments, attack only the individual with opposing views and do not engage in scientific discussions. (14)
There is much evidence that vaccines greatly increase baby mortality, especially in poor countries. One such publication about the introduction of a multivalent vaccine in Africa states: “Between 3 and 5 months of age, children who received DTP and OPV early had 5-fold higher mortality than still unvaccinated children” and also “All-cause infant mortality after 3 months of age increased after the introduction of these vaccines”. (15)
Another study of the US-based Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) found that the mortality rate of 6.1% associated with children aged less than 0.5 years is statistically significantly higher than the rate of 2.1% associated with children aged 0.5–0.9 years. It also shows the dangers of polyvalent vaccines or multiple vaccines: the mortality rate of 5.5% associated with 5–8 vaccine doses is substantially higher than 3.6 % for 1–4 vaccine doses. (16)
Another report shows the higher the number of scheduled vaccine doses routinely given, the higher is the infant death rate of a country. Of 34 countries the US has the highest number of doses for infants of less than 1 year of age in its vaccination schedule and it has also the highest infant death rate, while countries with the lowest number of scheduled vaccinations generally have less than half of the US infant death rate. (17)
The yearly number of SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome cases in the US is over 10,000. Officially this number is claimed to have been greatly reduced in recent years, but that is only because most recent SIDS cases have been taken out of the SIDS group and were re-classified as being breathing related or of other causes. However, the total number of SIDS cases combined with the new classifications is still growing. I regard SBS as a sub-group of SIDS with especially strong vitamin C deficiency related bleeding symptoms in the brain.
Here we have now a perfect chain of evidence linking vaccinations with increased infant death, linking vaccinations with severe vitamin C deficiency, linking severe vitamin C deficiency or scurvy with bleeding in brain and eyes, and linking bleeding in the brain and eyes with infant death displaying the symptoms of SBS.
The frequently encountered bone fractures in babies with SBS have been related to vitamin K2 deficiency which may have been caused by repeated injections, probably in combination with difficult pregnancies as described above by Dr Buttram.
Ignorant Defenders
In 2015 the Washington Post published an excellent report of investigative journalism with the title “Shaken Science: A disputed diagnosis imprisons parents.” Here are some highlights from this interesting article. (18) … a federal judge who recently freed a mother of two after nearly a decade in prison called Shaken Baby Syndrome “more an article of faith than a proposition of science.”
Of 1800 investigated cases about 1,600 resulted in a conviction, a rate that is higher than that for other violent crimes.
In four of the cases, doctors who had diagnosed shaking later revised their opinions, saying they were uncertain about the timing or cause of the injuries.
In four other cases, new medical examiners found that their predecessors had made mistakes by diagnosing shaking in babies who likely died from conditions that had nothing to do with violence.
Forensic pathologist George Nichols is among the doctors who once diagnosed Shaken Baby Syndrome and no longer believes in the science. “Doctors, myself included, have accepted as true an unproven theory about a potential cause of brain injury in children,” and “My greatest worry is that I have deprived someone of justice because I have been overtly biased or just mistaken.” … a judge in New York overturned the murder conviction of a 55-year-old babysitter who had spent more than a decade in prison, declaring that the shaking evidence against her was either demonstrably wrong or is now subject to new debate. … a Texas judge recommended a new trial for a man sentenced to 35 years in 2000 for injuring his girlfriend’s daughter. The district attorney and the defense attorney had submitted a joint agreement to the court stating that “the science that formed the basis of the conviction is now known to be unsound.”
The worldwide Innocence Network is currently working on at least a hundred Shaken Baby cases to get convicted parents and carers out of prison. The main problem is that this is very expensive and few families can afford it.
Since 2001, as a growing number of doctors and scientists began challenging the diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome, more than 200 criminal cases have unravelled. In some cases, charges were dropped or dismissed by prosecutors and judges. In other cases, defendants were found not guilty or their convictions were overturned. Some defendants spent months or years behind bars before they were released.
Forensic pathologists, medical examiners and others who for many years diagnosed Shaken Baby Syndrome now defend the accused. A neuropathologist who earlier wrote a textbook on Shaken Baby Syndrome later stated: “I was wrong … The original papers that espoused Shaken Baby were basically opinion papers with essentially no science applied to them.”
One of the most surprising aspects of this medical debate is that the originator of the Shaken Baby Theory, Dr Guthkelch became increasingly horrified with the way his theory was used to imprison parents. He told the investigating journalists: “I don’t think innocent people should be in jail”. He took part in the defence of accused parents and declared: “I am doing what I can so long as I have a breath to correct a grossly unjust situation … I think they’ve gone much too far.”
However, for me the key aspect in all of this is that these high-profile medical defenders were just as ignorant about the role of vitamin C as was the prosecution side. At medical school and in their subsequent education they were taught the Shaken Baby Theory as a fact, but were not told that bleeding in the brain and other parts of the body is commonly present when dying of scurvy, and that scurvy can originate from infections and vaccinations.
What can we do now?
The medical-pharmaceutical system obviously is so powerful that it can just ignore the facts presented by concerned scientists and the outcry of innocently imprisoned parents. The other point of concern is the breakdown of the criminal justice system which imprisons large numbers of innocent parents without real evidence or facts but just relying on the fiction presented by medical experts.
Even defence lawyers presently are totally ignorant of the real facts in cases of SBS and therefore cannot protect the innocent parents. Because the medical-pharmaceutical system early-on smashed all competing natural therapies, there are now very few medical experts in court with knowledge of scurvy and vitamin C therapy who can counter the accusations of the prosecution.
A further breakdown in the duty of care is apparent in the conduct of governments and parliamentarians. These should be expected to pass laws that protect the innocent and instead stop the real perpetrators from remaining hidden and protected to continue with their unconscionable activities. As a next step all those innocent parents still imprisoned should be immediately released and all past and present SBS sentences annulled. However, I am not optimistic about this.
I regard natural immunity for infants as being preferable to develop a strong immune system. However, if choosing or being forced to get vaccinations, then it is important that parents try to minimize any harm to the child and protect themselves against going to prison by providing appropriate amounts of vitamin C before and after vaccinations. For babies up to 6 months you may mix 50 to 100 mg of sodium ascorbate for some days or weeks before vaccination with breastmilk or a suitable replacement, gradually increasing from about 25 to 100 mg spread out over the day, while for several weeks after vaccination this may be increased to about 200 mg or more if indicated. If breastfeeding then also the mother should take about 1 gram during this time spread out over the day. Reduce these amounts if any seemingly related problems occur such as diarrhea. Vaccinations should be delayed if the child or adult is unwell until any infection has cleared up.
Adults and older children need much higher doses such as several grams of sodium ascorbate spread out during the day for several weeks before and after vaccinations. This precautionary vitamin C protection may also reduce other vaccine-related injuries. Instead of making laws to imprison innocent parents for life, governments should make vitamin C protection mandatory in vaccination programs.
References
(1) Guthkelch AN: Infantile subdural hematoma and its relationship to whiplash injury. BMJ 1971; 11:430-431.
(2) Duhaime A-C, et al. The shaken baby syndrome: a clinical, pathological, and bio-mechanical study. J Neurosurgery 1987; 66:409-415.
(3) Buttram Harald E: Shaken Baby Syndrome or Vaccine-Induced Encephalitis? http://jpands.org/hacienda/buttram.html and Medical Sentinel 2001; 6(3):83-89.
(4) Margulies Susan S, et al: Shaken baby syndrome: A flawed biomechanical analysis; in: Forensic Science International 2007; 164(2-3):278-9.
(5) Maia Szalavitz in Time Magazine: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/17/the-shaky-science-of-shaken-baby-syndrome/.
(6) Lynoe Niels, et al: Insufficient evidence for ‘shaken baby syndrome’ – a systematic review. Acta Paediatrica 2017; 106, 7, 1021-1027.
(7) Gilman Barrett B and Radford Tanzer C: Subdural Hematoma in Infantile Scurvy, Report of Case with Review of Literature; Jama, 1932; 99(12) 989-991.
(8) Vannier S, et al: Vitamin C Depletion Is Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage Risk Factor. Neurology 82 (10 Supplement) April 30, 2014, https://n.neurology.org/content/82/10_Supplement/S25.005.
(9) Abram Hoffer and Linus Pauling: Vitamin C and Cancer, Quarry Health Books, July 1, 2000.
(10)Archie Kalokerinos: Every Second Child. Thomas Nelson (Australia) Melbourne 1974 and Keats Publishing New Canaan CT 1981.
(11)Archie Kalokerinos: Shaken Baby Syndrome: an abusive diagnosis, April 2008. Copyright March 2012, Robert Reisinger Memorial Trust.
http://www.beyondconformity.org.nz/_literature_100424/Archie's_book
(12)Dettman Glenn C and Archie Kalokerinos: Red Cell Phenomena and Haematuria. Royal Society of Health Journal, vol. 101, 2: pp. 80-81, Apr 1, 1981.
(13)Chris Savage: https://www.vaccinationinformationnetwork.com/australian-doctors-police-blame-parents-for-vaccine-related-injuries-and-deaths/.
(14)Viera Scheibner: The Shaken Baby Syndrome Myth. http://legaljustice4john.com/vaccinesVeraSchreibEvolution.htm, and also 1991 “Cot Death Linked to Vaccinations”, Nexus Magazine (October-November, 1991), "Shaken Baby Syndrome - the vaccination link" Nexus Magazine, vol 5, no 5 (August-September, 1998) and "Vaccination and the Dynamics of Critical days" Nexus Magazine, vol 12, no 6 (October-November, 2005). March 2017Volume 17, Pages 192–198
(15)Mogensen Soren W at al: The Introduction of Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis and Oral Polio Vaccine Among Young Infants in an Urban African Community: A Natural Experiment March 2017, Vol 17, 192–198; https://www.ebiomedicine.com/article/S2352-3964(17)30046-4/fulltext
(16)GS Goldman, NZ Miller: Relative trends in hospitalizations and mortality among infants by the number of vaccine doses and age, based on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), 1990–2010; Hum Exp Toxicol April 24, 2012; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0960327112440111
(17) Neil Z Miller and Gary S Goldman: Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity? Hum Exp Toxicol. 2011 Sep; 30(9): 1420–1428; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170075/
(18) Debbie Cenziper: Shaken Science - A disputed diagnosis imprisons parents. Washington Post, March 20, 2015; https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/shaken-baby-syndrome/The-unsettled-science-of-Shaken-Baby-Syndrome.html
