Brain Injury Lawyer Blog 24/7
A 25-year-old man from Coon Rapids, Minnesota has been charged with assault and malicious punishment of a child. Prosecutors allege he shook his own five-month-old daughter, causing bleeding on her brain injury.
The baby was taken to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis for treatment, sources told police. As for the suspect, he is in county jail, with his bail set at $100,000.
Police in Coon Rapids were called to Mercy Hospital to follow up on a report of a possible “shaken baby”. Medical staff had noted the baby had significant bleeding in her brain and was in cardiac arrest, but had been stabilized, thanks to hospital efforts.
The mother of the child informed police the child had been sleeping at home when she left for work at 4 in the morning. The suspect called about five hours later to report “something was wrong” with the baby, then called again half an hour later to tell her the baby could not be woken and that “her arms would flail”, sources told interested parties.
The mother left work and took her baby to the hospital, where the infant was admitted at around 12:30 p.m. It was then she was diagnosed with retinal hemorrhaging and bleeding on her brain. Surgery was necessary to relieve pressure inside the infant’s skull. Her brain injuries could well have been fatal, prosecutors said.
At first, the suspect denied he had harmed the child. He said he didn’t call the doctor because he wanted to avoid missing work. Later, he confessed voluntarily that he shook the child twice because she would not stop crying.
“Using a forensic interview doll, the defendant demonstrated shaking (the baby), causing her head to forcibly jerk back and forth,” the complaint read.
The father said the baby cried for a while, then settle down. After he laid her in her crib, she continued to make sounds of discomfort until 10:30 or 11:00 a.m., noted the doctors.
He was arrested and he then told authorities he shook the child around 6:30 and saw there was something wrong with her about two hours later. Hospitals in New York City and Long Island are aware of these situations.
Often those who suffer traumatic brain injury are unable to speak for themselves, and this is doubly true for very young victims. They need the best of advocates, like a New York Brain Injury Lawyer. Only a New York Brain Injury Lawyer understands the complex laws surrounding such a complicated subject.