Question:
The contention of DTP damage is key in the most recently famous legal battle over shaken baby charges - the widely covered New York City case of Malcolm Scoon, 40, a quiet, religious Queens Anestheslologist who last spring turned down plea bargain offers in protestation of his innocence. Scoon was sentenced to 2 to 6 years on Rikers Island when a Jury believed shaken baby charges in the February 1996 death of his daughter, Mariah. Scoon was released from Rikers in mid-August while his conviction is appealed.

Mariah was rushed to Long Island Jewish Hospital, where, according to court testimony, the father's request that she be given intubation to assist breathing was ignored, and several other treatment mistakes made, including 40 minutes when no one paid much attention to the desperately ill child at all. The hospital quickly reported Scoon for Suspicion of shaking the baby, and he was questioned by detectives even before the little girl died.

Harvard neuro-radiologist Patrick Barnes testified at Scoon's trial that Mariah died from brain damage caused by a clot in a vein in the brain, but he didn't believe the prosecution's shaken baby theory. He said it was possible the DTP vaccination seven days before could have caused an infection leading to the clot. More Damage than good?

Answer: Some of the symptoms being quoted as shaken baby syndrome could be attributed to the DTP vaccine, particularly the whole-cell pertussis component,'' said Dr. Mark Geier, a Maryland physician and geneticist who has testified in numerous vaccine damage cases. He noted that one of the symptoms of shaken baby syndrome that prosecutors frequently stress is ``bleeding on both sides of the brain because of being shaken back and forth.''

But, explained Geier: ``A baby that has a DTP shot potentially has interference with blood clotting, and you might end up with bleeding on both sides of the brain. It looks like it could have been shaken baby.''

Harvard neuro-radiologist Patrick Barnes testified at Scoon's trial that Mariah died from brain damage caused by a clot in a vein in the brain, but he didn't believe the prosecution's shaken baby theory. He said it was possible the DTP vaccination seven days before could have caused an infection leading to the clot.