HOME: THE JOHN LAVERTY, JR. CASE-- FALSE SBS CHARGES, WRONGFUL CONVICTION & IMPRISONMENT

THE "SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME" MYTH: Why top scientists say it isn't possible to shake an infant hard enough to cause the symptoms used to diagnose SBS and the probable real causes

Baby Casey Laverty was taken to a "well-baby" pediatric appointment on Dec. 18th, 2000 at the age of one month. She had been hospitalized previously when she stopped breathing temporarily and lost consciousness 2-3 days after being vaccinated with a Hep B shot a few hours after birth. She was never well after that and remained lethargic, irritable, ate poorly, cried when moved or held, and soon after developed a serious respiratory infection, began episodes of "high-pitched inconsolable crying, her eyelids hemorrhaged under the skin and her eyes became bloodshot. Soon after, a brown stain spread under the mouth and then was replaced by 4 skin eruptions around the lower lip similar to cold sores. Hotline nurses the hospital told them to call about health issues or questions reassured the parents that Casey simply had a bad cold, colic, red eyes and lids from crying, and cold sores they recommended putting A&D lotion on. They insisted "baby doesn't need to see a doctor" even when John reported that Casey's skull had changed shape. A different sleeping position (their advice) and it went back to normal. And even when John accidentally dropped the baby while playing with her--a short fall from a sitting position on the bed, broken by his hands and then a padded landry basket onto a carpeted floor. The nurse did a lengthy phone check list and determined she was uninjured and didn't need to be seen. There was no change after that, so she was apparently right. When the parents took her to the clinic 3 days later, the Physician's Assistant spent over an hour with the baby and parents and seemed unconcerned about these common childhood ailments ...until Casey was undressed and laid on a cold examining table or scales and let out a piercing scream followed by "inconsolable crying", which alarmed her. The doctor came in and spent about a half hour with the parents, one of whom grew angrier as he demanded answers as to what had been on with the baby's health since they took her home from the hospital after birth. Baby Casey was sent to the hospital for "further testing" but the offended pediatrician told the hospital it was a case of "child abuse" and after that everything was diagnosed in terms of non-accidental injury, and no medical testing was done. The doctor's assistant documented that there wasn't a bruise or mark on the body other than the symptoms described above. Yet, as doctors and other health care providers handled Baby Casey, they were causing bruises...and far worse. The parents were blamed.
Even worse, there were signs and symptoms of infection and disease that were ignored or described as injuries instead of illness. One of the many ignored signs was an abnormally puffy lower face, as seen below. The skin sores, pale skin, bloodshot eyes and hemorrhaged lids are diagnostic of infantile scurvy (Barlow's disease). The dome-shaped head, soft bones, hair loss around the sides and back of the skull are characteristic of Vit D deficiency. The abnormal bruising from normal handling in the hospital indicated a hemorrhagic condition. The high-pitched, inconsolable crying is descriptive of vaccine-induced brain inflammation/swelling and/or conditions caused by vaccines or natural infection such as encephalitis, meningitis, or thrombocytopenia, for example.

The forensic photos on the left have been converted to black & white. The photos on the right came from a book.

Baby Casey: hospital forensic photos at 28 days old, diagnosed with "Shaken Baby Syndrome" by a "hospital expert" based partly on symptoms that never existed.		Unidentified baby diagnosed with Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis, from "SYNDROMES OF THE HEAD AND NECK"       X-ray of the swollen lower mandible (jaw) in Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis (Caffey's disease) which causes puffy or swollen cheeks. Some medical authorities now believe this condition is an early stage or manifestation of Barlow's disease (Infantile scurvy--Vit. C deficiency)
Baby Casey at 31/2 months old

 

Baby Casey was born to a "fat-obsessed" young, first time mother who only gained 10 lbs during her pregnancy by starving herself--living on small amounts of junk food, a lot of coffee, sugar, and cigarettes. Baby Casey exhibited signs of anorexia (a scurvy characteristic in some cases) preceding her initial hospitalization after an apnea incident within 2-4 days of a Hep B vaccination. Why is this infant so fleshy? Her face has the shiny-skinned, puffy appearance of edema and her body looks fleshy or swollen, but her hands and other photos showing folds in the skin have an emaciated, wasted look.

In an effort to research every symptom and sign, a "puffy cheeks/swollen cheeks" narrow search was undertaken with "hits" on both scurvy and "Caffey's disease"--Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis (ICH). Old scurvy literature yielded more references to "swollen cheeks" and other more detailed descriptions that closely fit the "Baby Casey" symptoms than more recent references.

ICH particularly matches some symptoms: swollen cheeks, mandibles possibly, and acne--the "blisters" erupted like "messy pimples" according to John, and progressed into open sores with no healing signs--and two new whitehead-like pimples which may or may not be related are seen in the larger photo on this page.

ICH normally involves ribs and clavicles in particular: Casey was found to have 20 callused ribs between x-rays taken 10 days apart, including difficult-to-reach "first ribs" in different healing stages, and 2 callused clavicles, all of which were all interpreted as "healing fractures". John saw the x-rays and said there were no showing fracture lines, only "little balls" on the bones, which he was told were signs of healing broken bones. They were far more likely calluses from subperiosteal hemorrhages which look the same on x-rays, although scurvy can cause such bone fragility that spontaneous fractures occur and bones can break from normal handling not usually associated with trauma.

Casey's "inexplicable" skull fractures with no external trauma symptoms or signs included a depressed temporal lobe area skull fracture and "squeezed skull" appearance (overlapping "lifted" skull plate at the location of the depressed fracture) along with a linear fracture on the back of her head, but ICU Dr. McCravey claimed these were, along with bleeding between the brain and skull, "only hours old" after Casey had already been in the hospital for "hours". More logically the skull fracture dating is off--dating is an inexact science--and the skull fractures occurred as birth injuries in an infant who invariably developed chronic subclinical scurvy (SCC) in the womb due to the mother's nutritionally deficient prenatal diet while the bleeding in the skull was fresh because a hemorrhagic condition had just advanced to that stage.

A brief survey of ICH literature describes this condition as genetic, but also of "unknown etiology". However, it is also described as being caused by the administration of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) and PGE2 for treatment of ductal-dependent cardiac lesions. Is it logical--and again this is a lay person asking--that a condition is considered genetic but also occurs as a drug injury? That suggests (to me) the cause is acquired--set off by something related to the side effects of this particular drug treatment. Vitamin C deficiency? K? Also, it seems that conventional medical exploration too often come ups with a genetic model as a theoretical cause of a condition without considering the nature of mobile genetic elements and that the condition may instead have affected the gene makeup instead of the other way around.

Scurvy is listed as a differential diagnosis for Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis, but apparently rejected in cases diagnosed as ICH due to little more than timeline differences. ICH is seen during gestation, at birth or shortly after, presenting by 5-7 months. Infantile scurvy has historically been associated with older infants, from about 7 months on.

That was before vaccine-induced, accelerated "Barlow's disease variant" complicated with endotoxins burst on the scene, albeit playing to a very small audience of physicians too ethical to be daunted by the reality that the major portion of income for pediatric specialists became exposed to risk by the very concept of this newly-described syndrome, or that their findings or support for new scientific discoveries would be met with silence at best or extreme hostility in general by the majority of the medical community for reasons too shameful to admit.

AN ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION FOR THE PATHOLOGIES FOUND IN
‘SHAKEN BABIES’ THAT DOES NOT INVOLVE INFLICTED TRAUMA
by Dr. Archie Kalokerinos, MD

Because of the complexities of the issues, it is best to initially consider, separately, the various pathologies found:

1. Bruises
2. Haemorrhages, including intracranial, and retinal haemorrhages
3. Fractures.

There are some important common causes and features in each of these pathologies. However, because of differences in physiology and biochemistry, responses and, therefore, pathologies, will vary in many ways according to which organ is involved. For example, a haemorrhage in the brain can progress towards complications that cannot occur in a skin haemorrhage.

The fundamental cause of all the pathologies

There is an increased utilization of Vitamin C precipitated (mostly) by endotoxin or other bacterial toxins. This, in turn, results in two pathologies:

1. Due to Vitamin C deficiency
2. Due to endotoxaemia.

Usually there is a combination of these two factors, with special complications that can occur in the brain because of its unique physiology. Taking this one step further, one can then move on to understand how:

1. Vitamin C deficiency can, in itself, cause haemorrhages.
2. Vitamin C deficiency can, in itself, cause spontaneous fractures.
3. Endotoxin can in itself, cause coagulation/bleeding disorders.
4. Endotoxin uses vast quantities of Vitamin C while being ‘detoxified’ (involving free radical reactions).

Endotoxin can specifically target the brain by:

1. specifically, and selectively, damaging the endothelial linings of cerebral blood vessels
2. breaking the blood-brain barrier
3. seeping into the cerebral tissue
4. causing anoxia by a direct effect on the respiratory centre
5. initiating a rapid series of biochemical disturbances, including free radical reactions, leading to an extremely rapid onset of cerebral oedema—with a host of possible complications
6. causing coagulation/bleeding disturbances. The rest of the article and references

The variant of Barlow's disease--accelerated infantile scurvy/endotoxemia--may shed a different light on the older subject of "Caffey's Disease"--the very same Dr. Caffey who gave the world "Whiplash-Shaken Baby Syndrome" (Shaken Baby Syndrome) based on a foundation of junk science so shaky it threatens to disrupt legal processes as it has caretaker lives on a global basis when it inevitably shatters.  Dr. Caffey published a theory, but did not properly eliminate other causes.

This analysis looks at differential diagnosis. Is it possible that Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis is an unrecognized manifestation of prenatal and/or postnatal scurvy ("Barlow's disease variant"). ICH has reportedly become more rare--at least in its recognized form. Could this condition have been swallowed up and disappeared within a larger syndrome?

According to this theory:

Infantile Scurvy (Barlow's disease) is a well-known but often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed disease caused by dietary nutritional deficiencies--a lack of vitamin C in the diet--which shows up at about 7 months in a susceptible infant most likely feeding on an "artificial" diet without vitamin C supplementation, as healthy mother's milk is rich in C.

ICH--Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis--is infantile scurvy in the prenatal form of chronic subclinical scurvy or the accelerated postnatal form caused by the antigen challenge of vaccines that "suck up" all of the available vitamin C in a susceptible infant, but without the overwhelming load of endotoxins riding in with it in earlier years, which may be a matter of degree related to vaccination numbers and types.

Clemetson-Kalokerinos Syndrome as a variant of Barlow's disease (infantile scurvy)--is vaccine-induced, accelerated infantile scurvy/endotoxemia, a new manifestation of an old disease with an added component, based on the increased number of vaccines, including "triple vacs," given at the same time or following in short order at earlier ages, presenting with every sign and symptom of "classical" Shaken Baby Syndrome blamed on a caretaker but caused (figuratively speaking) by a "poisoned needle" which may become a "lethal injection".

Could ICH presently be "buried" within the C-K Syndrome with it's much stronger endotoxemia influences and not be recognized as the older, possibly misdiagnosed Caffey Disease? If so, that would represent one grouping of symptoms "lost" (unidentified) within the larger accelerated infantile scurvy/endotoxemia cascade of symptoms.

ICH is considered to be "self-limiting" although it can take a lethal turn, which exactly describes infantile scurvy, which either resolves naturally through improved diet or is treated, but which can quickly kill an infant or leave it maimed and broken in mind and body. If it tends to resolve around 7 months, that also coincides with the approximate age when babies make more demanding food choices on their own. Deficiency states often set up a craving for foods that heal them, proving again that the body is a marvelous, miraculous instrument when allowed to express its best self, particularly when nature isn't tampered with beyond repair. (Unfortunately, disease states may also set up cravings for whatever foul food or practice that triggers an adrenaline "high" to address.)

In conclusion, what must have "shaken" medics in this particular case was the fact that Baby Casey arrived at the hospital conscious, clearly alert, and that the "symptoms" of a supposed abuse condition that normally causes unconsciousness, altered consciousness or immediate death had in fact caused none of these. "Shaken baby" appears in a medical summary, the individual symptoms are described, but SBS was never argued legally. If it had been, it might have created legal havoc since this case defied some of the commonly accepted characteristics of SBS or Shaken/Impact Baby Syndrome as child abuse. As it was, doctors had to forcefully pound and jam square pegs into round holes to create the illusion (perhaps even to themselves) that external disease symptoms were injury signs--claiming that skin sores were "burns" of unknown origin, that bloodshot eyes were "red, hemorrhaged eyes" and that red eyelids hemorrhaged only at pressure points after crying were described as "black," a term later interpreted as "bruising around the eyes".

This is not to suggest that caretakers never hurt babies. They do. But other signs of abuse and differential diagnostic testing, almost never considered or done in babies labeled as SBS victims, can separate the innocent from the guilty. And there is another point to consider. When babies actually are shaken with frustrated intensity, this act is most often triggered by "inconsolable" crying that pushes a caretaker to the breaking point. "Inconsolable" is usually coupled with "high-pitched crying" in the medical literature, and signals vaccination "adverse reactions" more often than not. It may be these "shaken babies" are already damaged by a swollen brain and capillary fragility resulting in bleeding in the brain and retinal hemorrhages, the cornerstone triad of SBS symptoms, particularly since shaking alone has been proven to be of inadequate force to cause the symptoms and the "required" impact trauma "of tremendous force" is seldom observed externally.

It would be interesting to map "Caffey's disease" in numbers, comparing those diagnosed cases through the years with the changes in vaccination numbers and types during the same period. If someone ran tests on current "rare" diagnosed cases of ICH with the criteria established for Clemetson-Kalokerinos Syndrome--particularly vitamin C and blood histamine levels--what would they find? How might the current loaded vaccine schedule compared to past practices and the difference between "single" and "triple vac" shots affect the statistics?

On the other hand, in the wrong hands, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." --Benjamin Disraeli

References:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1087190
.Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis (ICH) — also referred to as Caffey or Caffey-Silverman disease — was recognized in 1945 by Caffey and Silverman (1). The condition, later shown to be transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait with incomplete penetrance, becomes clinically evident before 5–7 months of life, and the average age at onset is around 9 weeks. The initial symptom is general hyperirritability, with fever (?) and anorexia, quickly followed by painful, firm soft-tissue swelling, particularly in the face (cheeks and jaws), the scapular region, and upper and lower limbs. It is usually self-limited, with severe symptoms lasting from 2–3 weeks to 2–3 months. The pattern of distribution of the lesions varies from patient to patient and can be symmetrical (Figure 1). Swelling also involves underlying muscle. It is important to note that this phase of acute inflammation precedes the abnormal thickening of cortical bone (hyperostosis) that gives its name to the disease. It also subsides long before the hyperostosis resolves. Sometimes lesions recur suddenly in their original sites or in new sites, either during or after the subsidence of the swellings that appeared at the onset of the disease. This uneven protracted clinical course with unpredictable remissions and relapses is one of the most characteristic features of the condition (2).

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=535077
"On that three-year voyage, a crew of 250 was whittled to a mere 18 men. This foul diet led to disease, as William Clowes, a naval surgeon, writing in 1596, recorded it: “Their gums were rotten even to the very roots of their very teeth, and their cheeks hard and swollen . . . Moreover they were full of aches and paines, with many blewish and reddish staines or spots, some broad and some small like flea-biting.”

"The horrible nature of the disease gave Dutch physician Severinus Euglenius reason to think scurvy was caused by “divine permission, as chastisement for the sins of the world.”