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There are many medical conditions that can mimic Shaken Baby Syndrome. A good understanding can be obtained by reading the full original online versions of the following articles:


Shaken Infants Die of Neck Trauma, Not of Brain Trauma
http://www.ga-innocenceproject.org/images/SBS Seminar-10.12.11/Plunkett Supplemental Materials/Plunkett Zip File/Matshes E. Neck injury in SBS. Acad Forens Pathol 2011.pdf
No Longer active, now Archived Here now.

Evan W. Matshes MD FRCPC, Rhian M. Evans PhD, J. Keith Pinckard MD PhD, Jeffrey T. Joseph MD PhD, Emma O. Lew MD
ABSTRACT
[excerpt]
Evan Matshes, MD FRCPC is Assistant Chief Medical Examiner for the Province of Alberta (Calgary, Canada).
"We provide evidence that hyperflexion/extension forces as experienced by shaken and impacted infants and young children lead to injury of the cervical spinal nerve roots that innervate the diaphram, with resulting asphyxia and hypoxic brain injury. Therefore, we propose that trauma to the third through fifth cervical spinal nerve roots induced by hyperflexion/extension of the neck is the cause of the anoxic encephalopathy of the classic SBS triad, and is therefore not only a more specific indicator of hyperflexion/extension injury than subdural hemorrhage alone, but is the mechanism of injury in these cases."

NPR lay explanation of above study
Autopsy Study Provides New Theory On Shaken Baby Syndrome

Link to Abstract
Source Full-text · Article · May 2011 · The western journal of emergency medicine by Steven C Gabaeff

Frontline: If It's Not Abuse…
... Over the next 20 years, Laposata researched and collected interesting cases he saw, and in 2005, he published an article in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology reviewing some of the diseases that had led to child abuse misdiagnoses.

In particular, Laposata's article focuses on blood disorders that can lead to bleeding and/or bruising, including:

• Von Willebrand disease -- a hereditary disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly
• Vitamin K deficiency -- a rare condition where the body can't absorb the vitamin, which is necessary for blood to properly clot
• Leukemia -- cancer of the blood cells
• Ideopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) -- a condition where a low platelet count prevents blood from clotting properly
• Henoch-Schonlein purpura -- an abnormal immune system response that manifests as purple spots on the skin. The cause of this condition is unknown, and it's more common in children than adults.

Laposata created a PowerPoint presentation that highlights the difficulty in diagnosing abuse cases. He shows a photo of a child with bruises from a bleeding disorder next to a photo of a child who was abused and asks which of the cases is abuse. "I've been looking at patients with bleeding problems for years, more than two decades," he says. "And if you show me the two children with the bruises on their legs, I couldn't tell you that that one is the bleeding disorder. I'd have to do the blood test to find out."

Read rest of the Frontline article above, here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-child-cases/if-its-not-abuse/

More Information on SBS:
Interview Dr. Patrick Barnes

And what kind of medical conditions are we talking about that seem to mimic child abuse?

Infection is a very important one, and when we started really looking at these cases more carefully, we started finding babies who may have had an ongoing illness. They may have had relatively nonspecific symptoms, because a baby can't tell you, "I have a headache," "I have got an earache" or whatever, so they may act with just maybe irritability, not eating well; they may not be sleeping well. And sometimes they can get worse if they don't get immediate medical attention and diagnosis, and then at some point they may crash, like this child did. So infection is very important, and undiagnosed infection may be even a virus that maybe the majority of babies may get over in a few days.

Read more about brain swelling, distinguishing SBS from medical conditions, etc. here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-child-cases/interviews/patrick-barnes.html

Vitamin Deficiency

PDF: Vitamin K Deficiency Disease - Orthomolecular.org library
https://www.orthomolecular.org/library/jom/2008/pdf/2008-v23n01-p015.pdf
by Michael D. Innis, MBBS, DTM&H, FRCPA, FRCPath.
The role of vitamin K is not confined to the prevention of hemorrhagic disease of the newborn/(vitamin K deficiency bleeding) but is also essential for the mineralization and strengthening of the infant's bones.

Vitamin K Deficiency Disease Misdiagnosed as SBS
http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/02/vitamin-k-deficiency-disease-misdiagnosed-sbs
... fractures and bruises can result from deficiencies of Vitamins C and/or K and these deficiencies are not necessarily the result of neglect.

Shaken Baby Syndrome: actual innocence petition by Kent R. Holcomb (Medical Legal Advocate)
Recently the biomechanical community came forward to inform courts in this and other western nations that the medical community was misguided in the biomechanical SBS and LMF opinions, exposing to the medical and legal communities their mountain of experimental data that prove the following:
Thirty years ago they (the biomechanical community) had initially rejected the Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis due to lack of evidence and at the same time accepted the LMF theory as a valid hypothesis. Since these initial findings the biome- chanical discipline has repeatedly tested both the SBS and LMF hypotheses. In case of the former, it has been proven with scientific certainty that humans lack the strength to cause fatal brain injuries from manual shaking; that if the violent shaking supposedly taking place did actually occur, it would result in a high incidence of spinal paralysis from neck injuries in infants, which has never been reported in association with SBS, and that LMF can be lethal, all pursuant to a series of 1987-2007 stu- dies.
[lethal minor falls (LMF)]
See links to technical documents below.

Videos exposing SBS requires neck injuries

Shaken Baby Syndrome: An Abusive Diagnosis. By Archie Kalokerinos, 12th April, 2008.
65 page PDF
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bb7e/8347403638ac98691c58f32f40ea3f4ba678.pdf

Most recent SBS Related News: Note the subsection scroll bar on the right.

More SBS related News:
As the medical profession continues to debate the merits of “Shaken baby syndrome” (SBS), the American judicial system is increasingly determining that the evidence against SBS is strong enough to prevent convictions in a court of law, where the standard is “reasonable doubt.”

As Christina England reports in the story below, Chief Justice Ralph Gants from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts just ruled this month that another SBS case in Massachusetts must be re-tried, because evidence contrary to the supposed “science” behind SBS was not presented at the trial. Judge Gants even went beyond just issuing a ruling to provide legal advice to attorneys seeking to represent their clients against SBS claims.

Read rest of story here:
http://vaccineimpact.com/2016/supreme-judicial-court-of-massachusetts-opens-the-legal-door-to-retry-all-shaken-baby-syndrome-convictions/

The Syndrome is an explosive documentary following the crusade of a group of doctors, scientists, and legal scholars who have uncovered that "shaken baby syndrome," a child abuse theory used in hundreds of US prosecutions each year, doesn't exist.

Organizations in five states have hosted screenings for continuing legal education credit. Forensic/law conferences have booked the film as well as law firms who want to stay on top of the latest research.

Links to Watch Now:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_syndrome

More SBS news
http://vaclib.org/news/php/sbsnews.php

PDF file with an "SBS: actual innocence petition" by Kent R. Holcomb
This document contains legal, medical and mechanical science to combat false SBS accusations and is considered to be the best SBS document to date.

AlBayati-HudaSharif.pdf by Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati, PhD, DABT, DABVT [440 K file]
Analysis of causes that led to baby Huda Sharif’s intracranial and retinal bleeding and fractures of the left humerus and the 7th rib

Buttram-Multiple-Fractures-from-Metabolic-Bone-Disease.doc by Dr. Harold Buttram
Multiple Fractures from Metabolic Bone Disease, being Falsely Attributed to Inflicted Child Abuse:

Innis-JAPS.pdf by Michael D. Innis
Vaccines, Apparent Life-Threatening Events, Barlow’s Disease, and Questions about “Shaken Baby Syndrome”

MaB-Vitiligo.pdf by Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati, Ph.D., DABT, DABVT [1 MB file]
Analysis of causes that led to the development of vitiligo in Jeanett’s case with recommendations for clinical tests and treatments

manAlbayati9.pdf by Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati, Ph.D., DABT, DABVT
Analysis of causes that led to rib and skull fractures and intracranial bleeding in the case of the premature triplets Parneet, Sukhsaihaj, and Imaan

manAlbayatiRyan.pdf by Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati, Ph.D., DABT, DABVT
Analysis of causes that led to baby Ryan’s hemorrhagic pneumonia, cardiac arrest, intracranial bleeding, and retinal bleeding

Michael-InnisJOM.pdf
Vitamin K Deficiency Disease by Michael D. Innis, MBBS, DTM&H, FRCPA, FRCPath

Uscinski-McBride-SBS-Hypotheses.pdf by Ronald H. USCINSKI and Dennis K. MCBRIDE
The Shaken Baby Syndrome: An Odyssey
—II Origins and Further Hypotheses—

Uscinski-JNS2004.pdf
The goal of this study was to determine the relationship between aneurysm size and the volumn of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH).

Shaken Infants Die of Neck Trauma, Not of Brain Trauma
http://www.ga-innocenceproject.org/images/... ...

... Bandak showed that neck failure, across a spectrum of ages for infants, will occur before brain injury.[added emphasis]
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3099599/
Note: the author of above (Steven C. Gabaeff, MD)" is a designated expert by the Los Angeles County Committee of Superior Court Judges “appointed to maintain a Panel of Expert Wittnesses”, “providing expertise for both prosecutors and defense attorneys” in the areas of emergency medicine, child abuse and sexual assault.