Australian Bid To End Shaken Baby Controversy

Australian bid to end shaken baby controversy August 30, 2005 - 11:19AM

Australian researchers are developing a computer model they hope will take the controversy out of shaken baby syndrome cases. The University of Queensland team is in the process of fine-tuning the model aimed at determining whether a baby has been the victim of shaken baby syndrome and if so, how much force was applied. Shaken baby syndrome has caused controversy throughout the world, particularly in the United States and England, where some convictions for child abuse are being vigorously contested. The research team of engineers and a child health expert have been using a replica of a sixweek-old baby to simulate what happens to the brain when a baby is shaken. "The computer model attempts to represent what's going on inside the infant's head and from that, we can make correlations as to what injuries will occur," said civil engineering PhD student Zac Couper. "Given a specific set of injuries, the eventual aim of the research is to be able to ... work out what the actual force that caused those injuries might have been. "This could then be used to verify whether the child carer or parent is telling the truth about what actually happened." Mr Couper said the controversy over shaken baby syndrome had mainly developed over the absence of a clear understanding by the scientific community of what actions caused specific injuries. "If we can come to a better understanding of that, that should clear up the controversies and reduce the costs to society in terms of legal costs," he said in an interview. "It should aid doctors in terms of being able to more confidently diagnose something as being shaken baby syndrome or not." Mr Couper hopes the computer model will be finished within six months. He said the next step would be to apply the model to recorded hospital cases. Mr Couper and his supervisor, senior lecturer Faris Albermani, took on the project after being approached by paediatric ophthalmologist Denis Stark, who has been involved in a number of shaken baby syndrome cases. The research was partially funded by the Abused Child Trust. Trust chairman David Wood, a Brisbane-based paediatrician who gives evidence in child abuse cases, described the project as an exciting idea that could have worldwide interest. "What this shows is the degree of force required to cause certain degrees of injury," Dr Wood said.

"Because you can't actually do controlled trials with babies, this is an amazing idea. "It's a bit like seeing a car accident happening as opposed to hearing about people injured in car accidents." Apart from the obvious benefits in court cases, Dr Wood said he was more interested in the computer model becoming an educative tool for parents. "We now have a capacity to visually show people what happens with the brain when a baby's shaken and that has to be a hugely exciting educative tool to teach people the dangers," he said. "It'll reinforce that babies shouldn't be shaken." Some victims of shaken baby syndrome die, while others are left with permanent brain damage. - AAP