On December 4, 1998, Lorraine Harris took her 4-month-old son Patrick to have his vaccines. In the early hours of the following morning, she found him lifeless in his bed, and called an ambulance. He was rushed to hospital and placed on life-support, but sadly passed away a day later.
The post-mortem found marked brain swelling, some post-dural haemorrhaging and extensive retinal haemorrhaging (bleeding behind the eyes). The death was recorded as cerebral hypoxia – where the oxygen supply to the brain is cut off due to excessive swelling and intracranial haemorrhaging.
‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’, they decided…
Lorraine was charged with manslaughter and taken into custody. Her baby son was buried without her.
Despite being described as a caring, loving mother, no evidence of bruising or gripping, no history of fractures, Lorraine was convicted on September 7, 2000, and sentenced to three years imprisonment, on the basis of ‘expert evidence’.
While on bail, awaiting her trial, Lorraine had become pregnant again and as she was starting to serve her sentence, gave birth to another baby boy. He was removed from her at one day old, given up for adoption and she was never allowed to see him again. Her partner left her, while serving her sentence [1].
One of the experts whose report helped to convict Lorraine Harris was Dr. Waney Squier, one of only two consultant paediatric neuropathologists in England, with more than three decades of experience.
After Lorraine’s conviction however, Dr. Squier began to have a change of heart, due to research by Dr. Jennien Geddes, another neuropathologist. Dr Geddes had become troubled by the number of cases where there was no sign of physical damage to the child’s body [2 – 3].
Dr. Squier then “began to conduct her own investigations and concluded that shaking as a cause of death in babies could ‘virtually be excluded’ unless there was also evidence of body trauma, such as serious damage to the neck” [4].
Dr. Squier later appeared as expert witness at Lorraine Harris’ appeal – but this time for the defence.
Lorraine’s conviction was overturned, and her name restored, but her life would never be the same again. Despite the clear miscarriage of justice, her application for compensation was denied. She was also denied access to the baby boy who was adopted out.
The story doesn’t end there for Dr. Waney Squier…
In 2010, after acting as expert witness in several successful appeals, Dr. Squier was reported to the General Medical Council, by police, for ‘deliberately misleading’ the courts on Shaken Baby Syndrome. After a long inquiry, she was struck off the medical register. She successfully appealed through the High Court and was reinstated, but was banned from giving evidence in SBS cases for three years [5].
She says “We need a public inquiry into how this syndrome is still being used to condemn people in the family and criminal courts. They are being accused on the basis of it, yet it is only an hypothesis with no scientific evidence to support it” [6].
Sadly, there are more heart-breaking stories like this one…
In 1999, Sally Clark, a solicitor, was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing her two baby sons [7].
First, her 12-week-old son Christopher in 1996. His death was originally thought to be caused by a ‘lung infection’, but then…
In 1998, she found her 8-week-old son, Harry, dead. He had received vaccines just five hours earlier [8]. The second death raised the suspicion of authorities.
She was charged, and convicted, for their murders, based on ‘expert’ witnesses, one of which claimed that the chances of two babies dying from the one family were ‘1 in 73 million’. He also assured the jury that the vaccine would not be the cause of death [9].
After serving three years of her sentence, during which time she was assaulted and detested by fellow inmates as a ‘baby killer’, her conviction was overturned based on the discovery of medical evidence showing staph infection in baby Harry’s spinal fluid, that was hidden during her trial.
Although she was released, she never did recover from the trauma, and in 2007, she was found dead in her home, aged 42 years [10].
An estimated 250 cases of ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ come before the family and criminal courts every year, in Great Britain alone [11].
In the US, there are an estimated 1000 – 3000 cases of ‘shaken baby syndrome’ each year, with approximately one-quarter of those babies dying, and survivors often have life-long conditions and brain injury [12].
How many of these cases are violent monsters…and how many are loving parents, simply following guidelines to vaccinate their children? While-ever authorities continue to ignore vaccine damage, we will never know.
The diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome is based on the following triad of symptoms: subdural haemorrhage (bleeding on the brain), retinal bleeding (bleeding behind the eyes), and hypoxaemic encephalopathy (lack of oxygen to the brain). One would logically assume that neck injuries would be the first sign of violent shaking – after all, we are rightfully warned that an infant’s neck is very weak and needs to be supported at all times.
Research shows that cases of ‘SBS’ peak at around 6-8 weeks of age…when babies apparently cry the most (also when most babies receive up to eight vaccines, all at once) [13].
Some authorities have called for the consideration of homicide in any case of sudden death in a child [14].
And yet, a systematic review published in 2017 concluded that nearly all studies in the area of SBS were of very low quality, with a high risk of bias, and that, therefore, “there is insufficient scientific evidence on which to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the triad in identifying traumatic shaking” [15].
More than 50 years ago, an Australian doctor, Dr. Archie Kalokerinos discovered that the symptoms of ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome’ are perfectly identical to scurvy, or Vitamin C deficiency. He was able to halt the epidemic of SIDS and ‘Shaken Baby’ deaths in the Aboriginal community he worked in, via the use of intravenous Vitamin C [16].
In his book “Shaken Baby Syndrome: An Abusive Diagnosis”, he writes “Crucially for babies, the innate immune system is dependent on Vitamin C, for without that, the neutrophils, lymphocytes, and phagocytes which process toxins in the body come to a halt“.
And “While the Vitamin C recommended daily allowance might be sufficient to avoid a pre-morbid state called “scurvy’, it bears no relationship to the amounts required for the body to effectively manage essential biochemical processes brought into play after vaccines, toxin exposure, malnutrition, illness or stress“ [17].
He also details how Vitamin C deficiency, or a malfunction in ascorbate transporters can lead to spontaneous fractures in the bones of small children, and healing deposits – which appear to be old fractures that have healed over. (Another sign that is held up as ‘proof’ of abuse.)
Parental smoking is accepted as a strong risk factor for sudden death in infants. Smoking depletes the body of Vitamin C [18]. If the mother smoked during pregnancy or breastfeeding, the child is likely to be depleted of this vitamin, so essential for growth and cellular function.
Also, if a child is raised in a home where she is subjected to second-hand smoke, even in small amounts, she is at increased risk of Vitamin C deficiency [19].
Vitamin C – or ascorbic acid – also has a protective effect against heavy metals [20].
Could it be that Vitamin C-deficient infants are simply overwhelmed by the aluminium, and other ingredients, found in vaccines? Or perhaps overwhelmed by the body’s histamine response, in the absence of sufficient ascorbic acid to counteract it [21]?
More than 70yrs ago, it was shown that injections are three times more likely to cause death, if the recipient had been on a Vitamin C-deficient diet for 15 days beforehand [22].
References:
[1] The Justice Gap. Shaken Baby Syndrome and the fight for justice, http://thejusticegap.com/2012/08/shaken-baby-syndrome-and-the-fight-for-justice/. Accessed October, 2017.
[2] Reid S. The Shaken Baby Martyr: Top brain doctor who was struck off for controversial claims speaks out on how jailed parents could be innocent, The Daily Mail, December 10, 2016.
[3] Dyer O. Brain haemorrhage in babies may not indicate violent abuse. BMJ : British Medical Journal. 2003;326(7390):616.
[4] Reid S. The Shaken Baby Martyr: Top brain doctor who was struck off for controversial claims speaks out on how jailed parents could be innocent, The Daily Mail, December 10, 2016.
[5] Ibid
[6] Ibid
[7] Innocent.org. The Tragedy of Sally Clark 1965-2007, https://innocent.org.uk/2016/04/30/the-tragedy-of-sally-clark-1965-2007/. Accessed October, 2017.
[8] Author Unknown. Was Sally Clark’s child killed by a vaccine? The Spectator Archive, 19 May, 2007, pp 20
[9] Innocent.org. The Tragedy of Sally Clark 1965-2007, https://innocent.org.uk/2016/04/30/the-tragedy-of-sally-clark-1965-2007/. Accessed October, 2017.
[10] Ibid
[11] Reid S. The Shaken Baby Martyr: Top brain doctor who was struck off for controversial claims speaks out on how jailed parents could be innocent, The Daily Mail, December 10, 2016.
[12] [New York State, Department of Health, Shaken Baby Syndrome – Facts and Figures, https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/injury_prevention/shaken_baby_syndrome/sbs_fact_sheet.htm, Accessed January, 2019.
[13] Joyce T, Huecker MR. Pediatric Abusive Head Trauma (Shaken Baby Syndrome). In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island, Florida, StatPearls Publishing; 2018.
[14] Green MA. A practical approach to suspicious death in infancy–a personal view. J Clin Pathol. 1998 Aug; 51(8):561-3.
[15] Lynøe N, Elinder G, Hallberg B, Rosén M, Sundgren P, Eriksson A. Insufficient evidence for ‘shaken baby syndrome’ – a systematic review, Acta Paediatr. 2017, 106(7):1021-1027.
[16] Kalokerinos A. SBS: An Abusive Diagnosis, 2008, available at https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bb7e/8347403638ac98691c58f32f40ea3f4ba678.pdf. Accessed January, 2019.
[17] Ibid
[18] Schectman G, Byrd JC, Gruchow HW. The influence of smoking on vitamin C status in adults. American Journal of Public Health. 1989;79(2):158-162.
[19] Preston AM, Rodriguez C, Rivera CE, Sahai H. Influence of environmental tobacco smoke on Vitamin C status in children, Am J Clin Nutrition, 2003, 77 1):167-172.
[20] Yousef MI, El-Morsy AMA, Hassan MS. Aluminum-induced deterioration in reproductive performance and seminal plasma biochemistry of male rabbits: protective role of ascorbic acid, Toxicology, 2005, 215 1-2):97-107.
[21] Clemetson CAB. Vaccinations, innoculations and ascorbic acid, J Orthomol Med, 1999, Vol 14, 3rd Quarter.
[22] Parrot JL, Richet G: Accroissement de la sensabilité a histamine chez le cobaye soumís a un Régime scorbutogène. CR Soc Biol, 1945;
