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Roanoke Physicians Fight Shaken Baby Syndrome

In 2010 in Virginia, what was earlier assumed to be a tragic and coincidental increase in the number of instances of head trauma in infants by Roanoke physicians was further scrutinized and found to be not so coincidental. This alarming fact inspired the creation of an alliance between several Roanoke physicians to prevent this number from growing any more that 2009 and 2010 saw it grow.

These Roanoke physicians, along with a coalition of law enforcement and child advocates, announced the formation of the Southwest Virginia Alliance for Safe Babies in April 2010. These Roanoke physicians and professionals of authority chose April simply because the calendar month is designated  National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and even though these Roanoke physicians had earlier considered these accidents and deaths in the youthful young children they were seeing and healing had been unlucky accidents, after evaluating information and statistics they made a decision that these situations may be due to an rise in child abuse.

One of these Roanoke physicians, Dr. Donald Kees who is section chief of pediatric hospital medicine at Carilion Clinic Children’s Hospital, even estimated that while in previous years had had been seeing approximately one child a month in his intensive care unit for abusive head trauma, also known as shaken baby syndrome, the number he was seeing in 2010 – along with fellow Roanoke physicians – were much higher. “Over the many years it waxes and wanes,” Kees explained. “And then we saw it come back with a vengeance. It was quite alarming.”

In preceding years, Roanoke physicians had been used to seeing lower numbers. Statistics for 2008 confirmed that the infant mortality rate for these Roanoke physicians’ area – including the Roanoke and New River valleys – was 7.7 per 1000 births. This number was in fact lower from 8.1 per 1, 000 births in 2007. 2009 and 2010 saw a jump in the number of these infant deaths, though, and Roanoke physicians formed the coalition to put an end to the increase.

Many cases of shaken baby syndrome are not a result of malicious intent, but instead a tragic action taken by young, inexperienced, or uniformed parents and babysitters after hours of being up late trying to quiet a screaming, crying, and unhappy child. The Roanoke physicians that formed the alliance aim to educate parents on proper care for crying infants to prevent a further increase in these abusive and sometimes fatal head trauma’s.

In their effort to shrink these numbers, Roanoke physicians printed five thousand educational brochures that they have been passing out to mothers and families that have delivered in Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hosptial and Lewis-Gale Medical Center, and with what’s left over, give to mothers who deliver at other area hospitals as well~The Roanoke physicians, law enforcement officials, and child advocates who formed the coalition have been raising money to purchase and distribute informative and education material, such as DVDs and brochures, that focus on preventing abusive head trauma}.