From the cited article...
...Reporting Highlights
- - - Wrongful Accusations: Parents are being charged with abusive head trauma, a newer name for shaken baby syndrome, as mounting exonerations and new science raise questions about the diagnosis.
- - - Findings of Abuse: Child abuse pediatricians defend their diagnostic process, saying they do rigorous examinations to rule out other possibilities before they make a determination of abuse.
- - - Parents Left Vulnerable: Critics argue that the name change helped preserve a flawed diagnosis, leaving parents vulnerable to criminal charges and child welfare investigations.
... On the 911 call, Nick Flannery's voice was frantic as he tried to revive his infant son. "Come on, buddy," he pleaded with the 2-month-old, who had gone limp. "Come on, buddy. Breathe."
Nick, who was on paternity leave from his IT job, had been caring for his two boys while his wife, Felecia, was at a doctor's appointment. Not long before he called 911, on Sept. 7, 2023, his baby, Arlo, vomited while being given a bottle. Nick, who was cradling him, turned him over to ensure that he did not choke, then changed him into fresh clothes and put him in his bouncy seat. Suddenly, Arlo's eyes rolled back and his body stiffened. Then he went still.
Paramedics rushed to the Flannerys' house in Blue Ash, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. They revived the infant, but his breathing remained shallow. Felecia, who returned home to find emergency medical workers swarming her driveway, staggered across the front yard toward her family, uncomprehending.
In the emergency room at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the Flannerys looked on as doctors worked to save their son. Soon, a social worker took them aside. She explained that a CT scan revealed the presence of subdural hematomas, or bleeding between the brain and the skull: a symptom, she said, commonly seen in abuse cases. Nick and Felecia were dumbfounded.
More tests still needed to be run, she told the Flannerys, but mandatory reporting laws required that the police and child welfare officials be alerted. Nick and Felecia, upset but certain that any concerns would be allayed once doctors gathered more information, said they understood.
Detectives arrived, and the attending physician told them that subdural hematomas could indicate an underlying medical condition " or that the baby had been shaken. It was the latter scenario that Felecia remembers the doctor mentioning to her that evening. "I'll never forget him telling me, You would probably know this as shaken baby syndrome,'" she says. Felecia, having once listened to a podcast that characterized the diagnosis as controversial, grew alarmed. ...
