Frequently Asked Questions About Child Injury Law

Yes, you can, if the daycare center failed to prevent shaken baby syndrome from occurring while the baby was at the California daycare - or, if there were signs that the baby was being abused outside the daycare and the daycare failed to report suspected child abuse.  Allowing someone to shake a baby is unreasonable care, or negligence.  It is important to hire a shaken baby syndrome lawyer immediately, though, in order to make the proper allegations in a timely manner.

In recent years Kentucky has consistently ranked among the worst states in the nation for death rates associated with child abuse and neglect, averaging 29 child deaths each year with another 30 to 60 near-fatalities annually.

If you have any questions or concerns about what can be done to help children who have suffered from child abuse, or families of children who have died, please call Christopher Keane and The Keane Law Firm toll-free for free consultation at (888) 592-5437 (KIDS), click on contact us here, or use the web form provided at https://www.keanelaw.com

Every hour, one child dies from an injury.
About 1 in 5 child deaths is due to injury.
Every 4 seconds, a child is treated for an injury in an emergency department.

If you have any questions or concerns about what can be done to help babies who have been shaken due to Shaken Baby Syndrome, Child Abuse, or families of babies who have died, please call Christopher Keane and The Keane Law Firm toll-free for free consultation at (888) 592-5437 (KIDS), click on contact us here, or use the web form provided at https://www.keanelaw.com
 

In Michigan, 10 percent of children homicides from abuse and neglect were the result of shaken baby syndrome.

If you have any questions or concerns about what can be done to help babies who have been shaken, or families of babies who have died, please call Christopher Keane and The Keane Law Firm toll-free for free consultation at(888) 592-5437 (KIDS), click on contact us here, or use the web form provided at https://www.keanelaw.com

It is important to remember that there may be no bruising, scrapes or outward signs of physical trauma in victims with Shaken Baby Syndrome. The infant or child, however, may display one or more of the following alarming signs or symptoms:

• change in behavior

• poor appetite

• vomiting 

• seizures

• weak swallow or suck reflex

• generalized weakness

• irritability - both from brain swelling and from pain

• low or excessively high muscle tone in the extremities or trunk

• the head may stay turned to one side in a resting position

• head control may be absent in an older infant that previously had head control. 

• excessively sleepy/lethargic

• pale skin color

• cool skin temperature

• difficulty breathing and sudden respiratory arrest.

Once SBS is diagnosed, other evidence of abuse may be discovered.  Infants with SBS and non-accidental head trauma may but do not necessarily have co-occurring injuries such as skull fractures, neck strains and fractures, spinal strains and fractures, rib fractures, extremity fractures and bruising on the chest and/or abdomen and extremities. There may but not necessarily has to be evidence of new and old fractures on the ribs from multiple episodes of shaken baby syndrome and child abuse.

One of the most-recognized classic signs associated with SBS is retinal hemorrhage, or bleeding. The infant’s eyes may get injured and diffuse bleeding (hemorrhages) of both retinas may be present for several days after the injury. Retinal hemorrhages may clear up if the condition occurs in mild cases of SBS. But, in severe cases, blindness or permanent visual impairment may result from SBS. Subtle symptoms such as not focusing or tracking items may be the only physical finding that an infant demonstrates on an eye exam. Pupils may be small or large, or unequal in size. Unequal pupils are a “late” sign of brain trauma in babies, meaning that there is significant, new and additional pressure inside the brain sufficient to have caused the nerves controlling the pupil size in one eye to change from its normal size, while the pupil size on the other side remains normal. Absent or diminished pupillary reflexes may be present which is, again, another sign of increasing damage inside the brain. 

The second and most damaging sign associated with SBS is damage to the brain, including damage to the blood vessels in the brain. The brain bleeds in many areas from the shaking forces with or without bruising, contusions and skull fractures. The bleeding in the brain will cause high pressures inside the cranium and globes of the eyes. If timely and effective treatment for the bleeding and swelling within the brain does not occur, serious neurological damage will likely occur or death may result from increased intracranial pressure and brain herniation. Improperly or untimely treated SBS may cause paralysis, deafness, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy and seizure disorders. 

If you are trying to learn more specifics about the location within the brain that is damaged by shaking a baby, read on as we give a little background about specific head injury patterns often associated with SBS or abusive/non-accidental head trauma.

If you have any questions or concerns about what can be done to help babies who have been shaken due to Shaken Baby Syndrome, Child Abuse, or families of babies who have died, please call Christopher Keane and The Keane Law Firm toll-free for free consultation at (888) 592-5437 (KIDS), click on contact us here, or use the web form provided at https://www.keanelaw.com

Umbilical cord blood gas is one test that may offer information about lack of oxygen to a baby's brain. When a baby experiences lack of oxygen for a prolonged period of time, metabolic acidosis may result. Lack of oxygen and severe metabolic acidosis is a neonatal emergency and may permanently damage a baby's brain. Umbilical cord blood gas results, in many circumstances, can offer important information about how long a baby went with low or no oxygen during the birth experience.  

If you delay, witnesses may move or forget important details about the car accident.  If you delay, evidence which may be critical to win your child's lawsuit may be destroyed.  If your child, or a child you know, was injured in a car accident, a San Francisco California attorney for children or California child injury lawyer can help you secure the testimony of key witnesses and locate evidence.

While you should never fear telling trustworthy people the truth about what occurred in an accident, or to your child, people who are not trustworthy may take down an incorrect or incomplete version of your statement.  Do not describe the accident - or talk about the child's injury - to anyone except the police at the scene of the crash.  After that, contact a San Francisco California attorney for children injured in cars or California child injury lawyer can help you make sure the proper version of the accident and the injuries is what the insurance companies record.

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A San Francisco California attorney for children with brain damage or spinal cord injury or California child injury lawyer for car accidents can do this by working with structured settlement specialists, probate lawyers and special needs trust professionals and administrators.  You want to be sure that you not only get your injured child a fair recovery, but that is protected in case you are concerned that you may not always be around, or that your child may live longer than you.