External Injuries and Disappearing Bruises.

“The bruise on the knee is caused by strong gripping.” – Senior Consultant paediatrician.

This refers to a single bruise about 8-10mm dia, on the side of the child’s knee. This bruise was referred to on numerous medical reports. All the medical experts apparently agreed that it was caused by strong gripping.

Note: This bruise was the only one found on the child, apart from severe bruising around the head caused by the birth process. (This head bruising was photographed by the parents shortly after birth).

Later this same consultant referred to this bruise as “bruising around the knee caused by gripping”.

How does ‘strong gripping’ produce a single small bruise?

Statement of parents referring to this bruise; “our dog,  a Staffordshire bull terrier,  jumped up on to the settee and her paw caught the babies leg.”

Interpretations of this statement in reports given by various medical “experts” on the prosecution team.

A. “the dog jumping up on him and kicked him”.  Consultant paediatrician who brought the charges.

B. “the dog jumped up, … her legs were out-stretched and one of them was touching the baby’s knee”. Senior Consultant paediatrician.

C. ” In my opinion the bruise on the knee is unlikely to be caused by the dog resting her feet on the baby in the manner described.” As above.

D. “and it is hard to see how a medium sized dog could land on a child’s knee with sufficient force to cause a bruise”. As above.

E. “the bruise on the knee is caused by tight gripping around the knee”. As above.

The  Senior Consultant paediatrician referred to above was from a Children’s Hospital and in affect took over the prosecution.

Dogs have none-retractable claws. We had hoped that this particular consultant would allow us to  walk the Staffordshire bull terrier across her naked legs during the court case.

The bruise was too small to have been caused by tight gripping by either of the parents, who were both over 6 feet tall. The bruise was consistent with an impact from a dogs claw.

Although this particular bruise was a genuine bruise that would be recognised as such by most people, various other ‘bruises’ were referred to by the prosecution. These arrived in the months waiting for the court case.

 Disappearing Bruises.

Marks that are not bruises.

Petechial  ” bruising”.

A very loose definition covering many different situations. If you rest your arm on a ribbed mat for a few minutes, you will find red lines on your arm. According to SBS “experts” this is caused by someone viciously shaking you or throwing you down onto a hard floor. An exaggeration?  Yes, but only slightly.

These marks rapidly disappear because no damage has been caused, therefore they are not bruises. This type of marking is caused by pressure, not impact. In fact these marks are not actually ‘petechia’, nor do they have a “petechial appearance” as claimed by most of the paediatric prosecution ‘experts’.

Vasomotor lability

Vasomotor. Causing or relating to the constriction or dilatation of blood vessels.

Lability. Open to change; readily changeable or unstable.

Extract from Consultant Community Paediatrician’s report.

During my assessment, when I lay ******* on the rubber ridged mat to assess his locomotor development, I did notice when I picked him up that he had some red lines on his back which were the impressions from the mat. These disappeared within 5 minutes of finishing the examination.

I felt that this demonstrated a certain amount of vasomotor lability at the skin, but these were clearly not bruises which are caused by trauma and a bleeding into the skin.

This examination was carried out approximately 8.5 months after the child’s birth.

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Petechiae Causes.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

Tiny blood vessels (capillaries) link the smallest parts of your arteries to the smallest parts of your veins. Petechiae appear when capillaries bleed, leaking blood into the skin. A number of things — including prolonged straining, certain medical conditions, specific types of injuries and some medications — can cause this bleeding.

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The parents took the baby to the family doctor because of a persistent sickness over a few days.

After the examination the doctor noted that red marks were on the baby’s back caused by lying on a ribbed examination table. This was shortly before the ambulance arrived at the surgery to take the baby and parents to the hospital.

At the hospital the baby was examined by two paediatricians. After this the parents were charged with shaking him.

Later reports supplied to the parents ., noted “Dr.********,  my colleague, also noted some petechial  bruising on the left upper arm…….”.

Why would he say this? He examined the baby quite soon after “his colleague”, so why did he not say that he himself had found these bruises?

There were no petechial bruises on the babies arms at the family doctors surgery, the parents and the baby were with the ambulance staff from the surgery to the hospital. So who caused these “life threatening” injuries due to throwing the baby about?

No subsequent examination found any evidence of this bruising, no member of the family saw this bruising and no photographs were taken of it.  Petechial bruising does not just disappear, because it depends on damage to sub-cutaneous blood capillaries.

There “bruises” were marks left by normally handling of the baby,  and rapidly disappeared. (Note: The baby was 9 weeks premature at birth). Neither of these two doctors mentioned these arm “bruises” after this report, but they were frequently referred to in other doctors reports and considered to be evidence.

It is a well documented medical fact that due to the lack of development of the blood vessels, the premature infant is at an increased risk of haemorrhage.

External Injuries.

The above mentioned bruise on the baby’s leg was the only external injury found at any time after the baby left hospital after the birth.

However,  at birth there was a “very badly bruised head”, as noted by the midwife.

Not a ‘bruised head’, or a ‘badly bruised head’ but a ‘very badly bruised head’.

There was also a depression on the front right hand side of the head.

Author – Brian Williams.