Sue Luttner
This blog recounts more than a decade of my research about shaken baby syndrome (SBS).
I’m a technical writer who was drawn into the arena over several months in 1996 and 1997. While sitting with a friend on various park benches as our children played, I heard the story of my friend’s adult niece, Stephanie, accused and ultimately convicted of shaking an infant she was watching. At the end of the story Stephanie went to prison, where she would miss her own son’s childhood.
Then Louise Woodward—the Boston nanny—hit the headlines and stayed there for a year. I started researching the medical thinking behind both convictions and reached an astonishing conclusion: Doctors working with a well accepted but unproven model of SBS are overdiagnosing shaking injuries, and sometimes identifying the wrong perpetrator.
I’m now wrapping up a book that explains how different standards and practices within the two professional communities—medicine and the law—have allowed an unproven theory to become courtroom fact. The tangle is now Gordian, as good people who’ve been working with the best of intentions must come to grips with possibly having been wrong. The victims of this tragedy are legion.
See, for example, the prologue to the book.
-Sue Luttner
Glad you’re back in action, Sue. I think your use of photos in the content is very effective.
Thanks so much, Tobe. I’m having a lot of fun with the art. -Sue
I love the use of flowers on this website. A yin yang effect given the subject?
Sue,
Multi dimensional journalism.
Love it, Joe
I’m so glad you have started this blog, Sue. Both for you and for the people who have been mistakenly accused.
Sue, great Blog. I just finished watching Frontline on the same subject.
Amazing on how manny people are in jail unjustly.
Sue great job! I know it’s been years in the making. I suspect that it won’t take that long to create big change. Keep believing in this cause. It’s a side that needs a voice.
P.S. I think I recognize the photos. They are beautiful.
This is a great blog and thank you for having it up. Anyone else who can get out the information is welcome. The more there are the more credibility the rest of us gain as well. Keep up the good work!
Thank you, Tonya, for your kind words. I just checked out your own site, which is both moving and informative, so I’m posting the url here: http://www.theamandatruthproject.com/
My condolences on your tragedy, and thank you for standing up.
Best wishes to us all.
I am so grateful for your blog. My boyfriend and I have a healthy 11 month old, now. But when Harper was 5 weeks old, our son started having left-sided seizures we soon found out were due to a bleed on his brain. Harper had been septic when he was born, had been hospitalized for the first week of his life, and I had been pre-eclamptic towards the end of my pregnancy.
However, his & my medical complications were not even perfunctorily considered in the “investigation” of the origin of his bleed. We were immediately launched in to a 6 month ordeal where we were accused of shaking our son, he had to live with my parents, & we could not be alone with him. I am nearly done with Nursing school & Harper’s dad has worked with children for over 10 years. A finding, in criminal court or in family (dependency) court, would have been devastating. We made it out of this experience without either & our son is back home & completely normal/healthy. This was not without considerable resources spent on lawyers & the invaluable help of a pro-bono lawyer who is an expert on these cases. Harper was not harmed by anyone in his care-I truly believe that his health issues early on combined with the normal trauma of a vaginal birth combined to create minor coagulopathies that contributed to his bleed. The astonishingly increased rates of SBS/AHT diagnoses have less to do with more people shaking/abusing their babies and more to due with a culture of rampant finger-pointing amongst pediatricians hell-bent on making the diagnosis of abuse. This needs to stop–there need to be consequences for using such a negligently broad brush.
Thank you so much for posting, Emily. I’m glad your son is back with you. I’m delighted to know that someone who understands will be going into nursing.
I have known Stephanie Spurgeon for over 30 years. She was always a kind hearted and reserved person. Never any one you would think of as quick to temper or mean. Truly, when I think of Stephanie I would consider her nothing but gentle and kind.
I just found out yesterday of her ordeal and conviction of causing the death of an infant within her care over a “subnormal hemorrhage” despite other expert testimony to the contrary. How tragic – there is no sure proof here. This is conviction based on opinion….not fact. So shameful. Hopefully your efforts and others like you will continue to bring awareness to this issue and those wrongfully accused.
My heart breaks for Stephanie. Please pray this justice is over turned.
Just thought I’d share this article with you – I couldn’t find an email for you. http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/235246/publisher_ID/40/
Thank you for the tip—I ended up blogging about it.