Question:
Eight month old babies who get their head hit against some immovable object also gets a depressed fracture, not a linear fracture such as this baby did. Also, a baby slammed against an object has neck trauma and bruising on the outside, again, symptoms this baby did not have. never forget the baby had been in distress that morning before Louise took over. Louise was told by Ms. Eappon that he had been constipated all weekend and crying. There is no dispute to a three week old wrist fracture. again, they went for what was perceived as the easy conviction instead of trying to find out the truth. the parents were part of the medical team that worked on the baby. They were NEVER investigated. Their testimony was only scrutinized by the Defense, and that was during trial, where the defense would be making a major mistake to do anything but be kind during cross examination. Considering this case was another rush to judgment, mistakes were made. Does anyone really want convictions based on incomplete information just because they are easy??? Would anyone want to be judged in this manner????????? I don't think so. This child deserved to have complete information and a complete investigation before anyone was arrested. We all know how police stick together, it is the same with doctors. In most child injury cases the parents are supposed to be investigated as well, not be part of the treatment plan. Add to this, forensic evidence disappearing. Something is very wrong in Massachusetts.

Answer: I want to make sure you get this straight. The baby's head injury was a serious injury--serious enough to lead to immediate unconsciousness and then death. If the baby was conscious when the parents left that morning, they could not have been the one's who caused the injury. If the baby became unconscious during the time when he was with innocent Louise--and there was no one else around--then she had to have been the one responsible.

BTW, I heard one of the nurses who was present in the operating room during the futile operation to try to save Matthew Eappen's life call into an NPR station. She said that there was no doubt among any of the doctors that baby Matthew had been seriously abused--that what had happened to him was not the result of a lingering injury. She did not hesitate to call Louise Woodward a murderer.

The authors say that shaken-baby syndrome accounts for most severe brain injuries to infants, but that it should more accurately be called "shaking-impact syndrome," since most injury comes when the head forcefully strikes a surface. That Matthew Eappen did not have obvious marks on his scalp does not mean that his head did not strike an object. The article notes that when the head strikes a soft object like a couch or pillow, the force is dissipated, but "the brain itself decelerates rapidly."