“It’s a nightmare that happened to us.” these parents are wrongly accused of having shaken baby syndrome;

“A child dies every five days from maltreatment in a family environment, the goal is not to question this reality,” Mathieu Habask immediately asks before starting the interview. “The goal is to focus on the gray area in the case of traumatized children that sometimes unfairly sends their parents to prison.” Konbini journalist, documentary film director Presumed guiltyReleased on February 25th, it questioned the misdiagnosis of this syndrome after wrongly accusing several friends. The first case of violence in France, however, many parents declare their innocence. After several months of investigation, the latter heard several families who were charged on the basis of wrong medical conclusions. “It’s a nightmare that happened to us,” they say in unison. Adele, Maria, Frederic, who appear on the screen, were all suspected of abusing their child, or worse, killing it; before justification. Since then, they have “survived”. How to do it differently? Interview:

Car accident at a speed of 150 km/h

Madame Figaro: What is the exact definition of “shaken baby syndrome”?
Mathieu Habask. According to the data of the highest body of health, this is the name of cases of child abuse, which mainly refer to children under 1 year old. More precisely, it is a series of head injuries caused by repeated and very violent shaking, most often by holding the child’s chest under the armpit. Some compare this shock to a car accident at a speed of more than 150 km/h or falling from several floors. It is fatal in 1 in 10 cases, and about 75% of children who survive have irreversible consequences. It is the leading cause of abuse among infants. If we rely on the French public health data, this would be about 500 babies per year. Some believe that this data is underestimated, others say the opposite, but it is already a good average.

What is the medical examination based on to diagnose this syndrome?
As assessed in infants who cannot speak or communicate what they are feeling, health care providers rely on three clinical signs: subdural hematomas (blood around the brain, editor’s noteretinal hemorrhages (blood on the bottom of the eyes, Editor’s Note) and rupture of bridging veins. When a child is admitted to the hospital and presents with these three injuries, the doctors are instructed to make a report, because this will definitely determine that we are dealing with a shocked child, which is not always the case.

You say that these three criteria are too approximate…
Medicine is always evolving, and we still have a lot to learn about childhood illnesses. Historically, shaken baby syndrome was theorized in the 1970s by an American radiologist. It is to him that we owe these three elements of reference, which were adopted in many countries years later. The idea was to standardize the diagnosis and solve the problem once and for all, which in itself was a good thing. In France, the Higher Health Authority published its recommendations on good practice in 2011 based on this work. But since then, many scientists have questioned it, citing other symptoms to definitively define its control, such as other fractures and visible bruising. Today, Canada, the United States, and Sweden no longer refer to just these three criteria, but have expanded their examinations. In France, we did the opposite. Since 2017, these three outbreaks, which were then classified as “probable shocks,” have been upgraded to “definite shocks.”

The wrongly accused families all describe the same scenario. the child’s eyes suddenly rolled back, the limbs stiffened… What other explanations could there be for the mentioned injuries?
For some parents who were exonerated after their indictment, it was ultimately about orphan diseases, external hydrocephalus or rare infections. This is for those for whom we managed to make another diagnosis. In other cases, no other reason can be found, and this is what leads to the most severe punishments for parents. This does not mean that they are necessarily guilty, but since we do not yet know the child’s illness, we will rely on these three existing criteria, although they are criticized today.

How do doctors protect themselves?
The High Health Authority (HAS) responded to this type of inquiry in 2019, highlighting that its recommendations, drawn up in 2011, were written by “more than 50 experts from the world of health, associations, the social sector, justice, the police and the gendarmerie. as well as civil society” and that it “updated its recommendation in 2017, taking into account the progress made in the field”. In fact, it is a “war of the experts” and the debate on the subject is often extremely heated and difficult to approach rationally due to the strong emotional impact of child abuse. Because at this stage it is important to remember that every five days a child dies at the hands of parents or close family members. Clinicians and early childhood professionals therefore face a constant emergency and a high risk of recurrence. This is why HAS experts believe that shaken baby syndrome should be diagnosed as early as possible to prevent recurrence and further damage. Doctors must therefore act quickly and well under high pressure. This is the well-known precautionary principle, which consists, even if the diagnosis is not certain, to give priority to the protection of the child. This is a good thing and we would love to hear from HAS experts on this topic. But they all refused to respond to our interview requests…

Interrogation and indictment

What happens when a report is issued by the health authorities?
When a child survives his illness, he stays in the hospital for several days for further medical tests to better identify the source of the brain damage. An educational investigation is then initiated to determine whether or not the child is living in a potentially abusive family environment. This investigation usually takes several months, during which the child is placed with a foster family or their extended family (such as grandparents). At the same time, the case is sent to the criminal court to judge the parents’ responsibility. Things get even more complicated when the child dies in hospital, as in this case the parents (or nannies) are prosecuted for infanticide. One way or another we rely on medical advice and families are really being mistreated. I think of Alexander, a father of three who lost his oldest in 2013. The police investigation was so damning, the investigators went so far as to show him the autopsy photos to get him to react and get a confession. (after the investigation, Alexander was sentenced to 5 years in prison for infanticide, conditionally, he still maintains his innocence, editor’s note.)

Your close friend was also there…
And still lives. A year and a half ago, she lost her child, a two-month-old boy. He felt unwell and was taken to the hospital, where he died two weeks later. Almost at the same time, he and his wife were brought to the police with an indictment. I didn’t understand, and I saw their suffering and the whole family’s suffering. They are still awaiting their trial date. I wanted to explore the topic. These are not isolated cases.

12 years imprisonment

Many children, mostly women, are also blamed for shaken baby syndrome. Maria who appears Presumed guilty for example, he was acquitted before being imprisoned for 7 months…
His case is quite symbolic. She was a child laborer for thirty years, took care of more than sixty children and was accused of ill-treatment on the verge of retirement. The child felt sick at home, his eyes rolled back, his body convulsed. He sought emergency medical care at the hospital. And then, it’s the domino metaphor. she waits for the doctor to figure out what happened, is told about the three injuries, and is being investigated for shaking the baby. Unlike the parents, who have access to the child’s medical records and who can try to investigate other possible causes of death with their lawyers, Maria is one of those people who has little opportunity to defend herself. As the child’s carer, she had no access to it. He received 12 years in prison. In the end, he only had to serve 7 months before being acquitted.

How did he prove his innocence?
Thanks to her husband who created online funds to pay for a good lawyer. He was able to access the medical file and on appeal the judge concluded it was a “natural death”. But Maria destroyed herself to get there. It must be understood that in these cases there is a triple penalty: mourning, indictment, and all the financial costs that follow the defense. In just a year and a half, my friend is already €13,000 in legal fees, because these are cases where families need to be very well protected and where very few firms specialize in this.

Adele, Maria and Frédéric meet at the end of your documentary. The feeling is strong and we feel them very united…
When faced with such trials, it is quite overwhelming to know that we are not alone, that others understand and experience the same things as us. As Maria says: “We’ll never be the same again. We’ll always have to live with that.” Over the months I saw how broken they all were inside. I believe that somehow we gave them their voice back. They are bruised, but now they fight only for themselves, they do it for everyone.