Doctors testify shaking led to baby’s death

[unhappycamper]

Doctors testify shaking led to baby’s death
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, October 30, 2008

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — There was no doubt in the minds of the doctors testifying in the second day of the court-martial of a Marine charged with killing his daughter.

Lance Cpl. James J. Boston’s 2-month-old daughter, they all agreed Tuesday, died of a traumatic head injury caused by violent shaking.

Testifying for the prosecution, five doctors said the child had massive bleeding inside her skull, brain damage, retinal bleeding and eight cracked ribs — injuries that were consistent with what has become known as shaken baby syndrome.

Two of the witnesses were Navy doctors who examined Tahirah Boston on Okinawa immediately after the Jan. 28 incident. A Navy doctor who treated the girl in San Diego, and two forensic pathologists from the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office, also testified.

And, although the doctors who performed the autopsy say they do not use the term shaken baby syndrome, they both said the death was a homicide and the injuries could only have been caused by violent shaking.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58477