Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Chana Al-Alas and Rohan Way: "Shaken baby syndrome." Acquittals lead to call for Vitamin D infant death report.


STORY:  "Call for Vitamin D infant death report," by reporter Andrew Hosken, published  on January 26, 2102, on BBC News, Radio Four.

GIST:  "Dr Irene Scheimberg and Dr Marta Cohen believe their findings merit further investigation and research. "I think there should be a commission that studies all these cases [which would] take into consideration the age of the children, the gender, the race and the way in which the way these families live - particularly when the children are still alive and living in foster care when they could be back with their families," said Dr Scheimberg, based at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. The findings in children from London and Yorkshire followed the discovery by Dr Scheimberg in 2009 of congenital rickets in a four-month-old baby whose parents had been accused of shaking him to death. Chana Al-Alas,19, and Rohan Wray, 22, were acquitted of murdering their son Jayden after the jury learned that his fractures, supposedly telltale signs of abuse, could have been caused by his severe rickets. Dr Scheimberg also discovered rickets in Jayden's mother. Michael Turner QC, who defended Miss Al-Alas, told the BBC that he was shocked by the lack of knowledge about vitamin D deficiency of some of the expert witnesses at the trial, held at the Old Bailey."

THE ENTIRE STORY CAN BE FOUND AT:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16726841

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;