Injuries to Boy Linked to Violent Shaking

Countering testimony offered by two other medical experts, an eye specialist told a jury Friday that certain injuries suffered by an 11-month-old Simi Valley boy two years ago could only have been caused by violent shaking.

Dr. Alexander Levin, a Toronto-based expert in pediatric ophthalmology, testified that tiny hemorrhages in the boy’s eyes were consistent with “shaken-baby syndrome,” and cannot be explained by any other diagnosis.

“It is a very specific sign,” Levin said. “I cannot find any explanation for those hemorrhages other than shaken-baby syndrome.”

The testimony was significant for the prosecution’s case against Margaret Major. The 49-year-old Simi Valley child-care provider is accused of shaking Jack Read so severely that he nearly died.

Major could face 11 years in prison if convicted of felony child abuse and inflicting great bodily injury to the boy, now 2 1/2 and permanently brain-damaged.

Major told authorities that about 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 24, 1997, Jack went limp in her arms as she was changing his diaper. She called 911 and the boy was later airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

Medical experts called to testify at Major’s trial, which began last week, have agreed his injuries were life-threatening, but they have disagreed on what caused them.

On Thursday, two doctors called by the defense told the jury Jack’s head trauma was probably caused by a slip-and-fall accident at home the night before he was hospitalized.

But Levin testified the boy’s eye damage could not have been caused by a blow to the head, as the defense has suggested.

On cross-examination, attorney Richard Hutton questioned how Levin could be so certain of his diagnosis--particularly when Levin never examined Jack personally and was relying on another doctor’s notes and medical records.

But Levin said retinal hemorrhages, such as those seen in photographs taken of Jack’s damaged eyes two days after his hospitalization, prove “almost 100%” that he was shaken.

“As far as we know, there has never been another cause” of retinal hemorrhaging in children Jack’s age, Levin said.

Hutton also questioned how Levin, a paid prosecution witness flown in from Canada, had reached a conclusion counter to the one offered by the boy’s treating ophthalmologist, who blamed the hemorrhages on swelling of the brain.

Levin said brain swelling can cause damage to the eye, but cannot account for the tiny hemorrhages found in Jack’s eyes. Levin said the treating eye doctor was only three months into a fellowship into this highly specialized area of medicine and made a mistake.

Levin added that he uses the doctor’s “rushed exam” as an example when teaching medical students.

At the end of the day Friday, an ophthalmologist who treated Jack six months after his head injury was called to the witness stand by the defense.

Dr. Mark Borchert offered yet another possible diagnosis for Jack’s head trauma. He maintained the child suffered a “massive stroke” that triggered the brain swelling and retinal hemorrhages.