PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "My best hope is that Judge Carr might notice a pattern in the child abuse suits that come through his court. A few popular but unproven tenets of child abuse medicine—that the triad proves shaking, for example, and the symptoms are always immediate, or that spiral fractures mean abuse—continue to derail accurate diagnosis and mar the good work that child abuse physicians otherwise do."
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POST: "Ohio Decisions Seed Hope," by Sue Luttner, published on her informative Blog "On SBS' on December 2, 2018.
GIST: In this post, Ms. Luttner comments on two decisions this fall in Ohio which she says offer hope for the wrongfully accused, while underscoring both the ironies and the complexities of misguided accusations of child physical abuse. (She says one of them opens the door to possible legal accountability for the casual over-diagnosis of abuse.) The first decision relates to the 2016 assault conviction of child care provider Chantal Thoss. The second is day care worker Beth Gokor's civil law suit against rhe doctor who concluded that the spiral fracture to the boy’s leg must have been an inflicted injury, not an accident. As Ms. Luttner comments on the Gorkor case: I can understand why the unanimity of opinion among child abuse experts gives the impression that shaking theory is well established—that conclusion, alas, is one of the reasons this fight is so difficult. The problem is that shaking theory was adopted before it was proven scientifically, and the research since that point has been premised on the assumption that convictions and plea bargains prove abuse. My best hope is that Judge Carr might notice a pattern in the child abuse suits that come through his court. A few popular but unproven tenets of child abuse medicine—that the triad proves shaking, for example, and the symptoms are always immediate, or that spiral fractures mean abuse—continue to derail accurate diagnosis and mar the good work that child abuse physicians otherwise do."
The entire post - well worth the read - can be accessed at the link bellow
https://onsbs.com/2018/12/02/ohio-decisions-seed-hope/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/
