Lori Frasier and the other side of Shaken Baby Syndrome - 11.25.14

In episode 38 David interviews Lori Frasier, MD, who was “pretty concerned by your interview with Professor Tuerkheimer on November 4th. She presented a highly inaccurate picture of the medical approach to these cases."

 

While Tuerkheimer limited the discussion to “Shaken Baby Syndrome”, which she defined as cases prosecuted solely on internal medical evidence (the so-called ‘triad’ of symptoms), Dr. Frasier wanted to talk about “Abusive Head Trauma”, of which about half the cases she sees also have external signs of abuse (such as bruises, scratches, burn marks).

 

Frasier also claimed that there are very few cases prosecuted solely on the triad, that if you look closely there are often signs of abuse, and that sometimes judges exclude the evidence of abuse, but allow the triad to be entered as evidence, and convict solely on that basis. She feels that the defence experts are often highly irresponsible, inventing mythical diseases to help get the accused off. Although she agreed that some vaccines can cause internal brain damage (such as encephalitis), she did not agree that they ever caused internal bleeding.

 

One of the major problems for Shaken Baby Syndrome is that there is still no unambiguous evidence that a human being can generate the forces necessary to cause internal brain damage in an infant without external signs of injury. Frasier conceded this point, but did not see that this should lead to a review of all convictions made based on the assumption that this is possible.