A DSHS report compiled as part of a criminal investigation for child abuse/SBS/NAI--The DSHS report contained false information, errors, timeline mistakes and misleading statements:

• "Casey was sent to Mary Bridge Children's hospital for non-accidental trauma"
  • The parents were told "for further testing"--she had four cold-sore type lesions below her lower lip, bloodshot eyes and eyelids, began crying inconsolably (described as colic) while at a well-baby appt., but the pediatrician originally marked her clinic report form as normal, and then altered the record later as can be seen on the form itself. There were no neurological signs, no indication of trauma, as documented by the Physicians's Assistant (LaVergne) who examined her.
    
• "Casey had bruising about her head and around the eyes."
  • Casey didn't have a single bruise on her when she came into the pediatric clinic, as documented in a letter by LaVergne. Her eyes and eyelids were bloodshot--a diagnostic sign of Barlow's disease (Vit C deficiency in infants). Illness, not injury. She acquired bruising later, from medical handling.
    
• "When scanned the physicians found that Casey had 10 rib fractures, multiple skull fractures, retinal hemorrhaging, bilateral clavicle fractures, burns in the mouth, and torn inside her mouth."
  • Casey had no sign of displaced rib fractures, only callus formation seem on x-rays that could have been calcifying subperiosteal hemorrhages which are hallmarks of Barlow's disease (infantile scurvy) or healing fractures from Barlow's, Vit D deficiency, or a conditions that some medical professionals now believe is a form of Barlows's--Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis.
    
  • Skull X-rays were taken on the day of admission and were negative for fractures. A CT scan taken the next day revealed a small depressed fracture on the left side with the same bone plate lifting on the edge, considered as a separate linear fracture. Forensic photos show someone gripping Casey's head in that same area to hold it still for the photos. Something happened at the hospital to depress the bone and lift the edge of the plate, also causing a small subdural hematoma inside the skull and a superficial hematoma under the scalp.
    
  • THERE WAS NO RETINAL HEMORRHAGING. The pediatrician falsely claimed RH and added it to the clinic report after the fact. The opthomologist verified there was nothing more than bloodshot eyes.
    
  • Bilaterial clavicle fractures--again, there was callus formation which may or may not have been from healing fractures, and if it originated from fractures, they were not from blunt force or there would have been damage to the lungs.
    
  • White spots on the roof of the mouth and nowhere else inside were described as "burns" when in fact, after Casey was diagnosed after being released from the hospital with oral thrush, which manifest as white patches on the inside of the mouth. Thrush is a symptom of immune deficiency. White spots on the roof of the mouth are a diagnostic symptom of Barlow's disease.
    
  • What was seen as "torn inside the mouth" later in the hospital was a torn frenum, the tiny piece of skin connecting the upper lip to the gums. This could have happened during exams at the hospital, or a few days earlier when John got home and noticed Casey had a small amount of blood in her saliva, which he assumed was from teething. He suctioned it out and it didn't recur.
    

• "Dr. Clapper reports that the parents said Casey had been crying for about a week and wanted to know what was wrong with her."
  • Physician's Assistant LaVergne wrote that the parents demanded answers about everything, what the lesions were around the mouth, the lung congestion, bloodshot eyes, hemorrhaged eyelids, and voiced concerns about everything, including the fact that she would only take an ounce of formula at a time. Also that John bitterly criticized the poor care and lack of answers provided by doctors when Casey was hospitalized earlier. Casey only began "high-pitched, inconsolable crying" after being stripped laid naked on the office scales to be weighed. The PA spent over an hour with them (they came in early) before becoming alarmed by the unusual cry and called the doctor in to look at her. Any pediatrician should have recognized the cry as distinctive of encephalitis or similar infection of the brain. The cry and bloodshot eyes and eyelids began on the previous Wed., 5 days earlier. As soon as John got home from work, he called the nursing hotline and the nurse insisted it was just colic and red eyes from crying, and that they didn't need to take Casey to the doctor.
    
  • From the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in the late 80's:

    "The neurologic signs and symptoms of encephalopathy may be temporary with complete recovery or may result in various degrees of permanent impairment.

    Signs and symptoms such as high-pitched and unusual screaming, persistent inconsolable crying, and bulging fontanel are compatible with an encephalopathy, but in and of themselves are not conclusive evidence of encephalopathy. Encephalopathy usually can be documented by slow wave activity on an electroencephalogram."

    Today it reads:

    "The following clinical features alone, or in combination, do not demonstrate an acute encephalopathy or a significant change in either mental status or level of consciousness as described above: Sleepiness, irritability (fussiness), high-pitched and unusual screaming, persistent inconsolable crying, and bulging fontanelle. Seizures in themselves are not sufficient to constitute a diagnosis of encephalopathy. In the absence of other evidence of an acute encephalopathy, seizures shall not be viewed as the first symptom or manifestation of the onset of an acute encephalopathy."

    They have put a name to this adverse reaction: "Crying Syndrome" or "Screaming Syndrome."

  How many parents of the signficiant number children who have experienced this type of reaction are told to go to the emergency room in order to do the necessary testing for encephalitis?

  In just a ten year period (1991-2001), there were 10,000 reports of unusual crying and screaming syndrome. Couple that with the fact that only a tiny amount of vaccine adverse events are even reported. In this case, nothing was said to the parents about the real cause of a cry associated with the pain of brain inflammation, nor were they accused of causing any kind of abuse, but John's attitude because more hostile and accusing towards the doctor he didn't trust, creating a motive for the doctor to retaliate.

• "Doctor Clapper saw bruising around Casey's eyes and on her head and believed her to be in pain."
  • There were no bruises whatsoever on Casey at the clinic. There was symetrical hemorrhaging on both eyelids above bloodshot eyes, diagnostic of Barlows. The PA documented the lack of any bruises or other signs she would have associated with abuse. The kind of crying that started after the examination was consistent with the pain caused by brain inflammation. Any movement of Casey's legs also caused pain, so she didn't like to be held and kept a "frog leg" posture, diagnostic of Barlows because of hemorrhaging into the thigh muscles causes pain in particular.
    
• "Doctor Clapper had Casey brought to Mary Bridge for suspected non-accidental trauma."
  • John's confrontational attitude towards the doctor and overheard accusation that Clapper only wanted to send Casey back to the hospital "for the money" probably made John a target. Clapper mentioned nothing about "injury" to the parents, but informed the hospital this was an abuse case, causing them to interpret illness signs as abuse. The parents were interrogated all day about the four cold sore type lesions around her lower lip, which "authorities" insisted must be "burns" until x-rays came back around midnight showing callus nodules on ribs and clavicles that were read as "healing fractures in different stages" and described John going into shock when they finally convinced him these were signs of injury. All he saw was "little balls on the bones" in the x-rays, no signs of bone displacement.
    
• "Casey received a CT scan and a skelatal survey which found her to have 10 rib fractures, 2 skull fractures: 1 depressed and 1 linear, retinal hemorrhaging, bilateral clavical fractures, burns in her mouth and on lower lip, torn inside of her upper lip, multiple subdural bleeds, and bruising around her eyes and face. Both parents stated that they were the only two people to care for Casey.
  • Casey received the skelatal survey late on the day she was admitted, which did not show rib, skull and clavical fractures, it showed callus formation on ribs and clavicles, which may have been calcifying subperiosteal hemorrhages instead of healing fractures (Barlow's disease). The x-rays were negative for skull fractures. The next day a CT scan showed a small depressed fracture that lifted the edge of the same bone plate, which obviously happened after the x-rays were taken at the hospital, meaning these injuries occurred IN THE HOSPITAL. "Burns" in the mouth were diagnosed later as "oral thrush" after Casey left the hospital and was in the care of foster parents. Lesions around the lower lip were not on the lip but rimming it, looked like cold sores not burns, and began with a brown discoloration on the skin which then erupted into small sores which enlarged, a description of a symptom found in Barlow's disease (a hemorrhagic condition caused by "capillary fragility") where bleeding beneath the skin erupts into poorly-healing ulcerated skin sores. The tear inside of the upper lip was of the tiny piece of skin (the frenum) connecting the lip to the gums and it wasn't discovered for some time. The parents weren't even told about it or questioned. It could have happened in the course of mouth examinations by doctors. The CT scan showed two tiny subdural bleeds and 12 pinpoint bleeds, inconsistent with blunt force trauma, but descriptive of capillary fragility. The bleeding was described as "only hours old" when found on Casey's second day in the hospital which doesn't fit the timeline of any kind of injury caused accidentally or inflicted by the parents. There was no bruising around the eyes, only lines of slight hemorrhaging on the eyelids, and bruising on the face only appeared hours later after a lot of handling and testing at the hospital. There were no bruises on her when she entered the hospital. This kind of abnormal bruising that happens spontaneously or from normal handling is descriptive of Vit K or C deficiency. It also illustrates how careful the parents were with their child compared to the medical professionals who handled her at the hospital. When the first forensic photos were taken about 5 hours after admittance, the only bruises noted were slight fingertip imprints on her forehead, probably caused by someone holding her head still during one of the examinations or for the photos themselves. A later set of photos showed slight bruising on her cheek, most likely from being laid on her side or pressure from equipment used to secure her head for x-rays or the CT scan.
    
  • Someone switched the forensic photos. The forensic report lists the fingertip bruises on Casey's forehead in the detailed description, but the forensic photos that ended up as evidence photos were taken later after more bruising developed. The report and photos don't match. A comparison of the two sets would show the progression of a condition of abnormal bruising, which would normally also mean abnormal bleeding.
    
• "The parents stated that they had called the nursing line at Mary Bridge throughout the week prior to the hospitalization, asking what could cause the different injuries they found on Casey. None of the nursing staff recall any phone calls matching the ones the parents describe."
  • After Casey was hospitalized when she was two days old for the apnea episode, and diagnosed with jaundice, high bilirubin, abnormal heart and breathing patterns, and then found to have a serious blood infection which they later claimed was probably a "hospital error" after 3 days of dangerous antibiotics by IV, although they weren't able to check the spinal fluid to make certain there was no brain infection, lethargy, nursing problems, etc. when they were getting ready to discharge Casey from Mary Bridge, a nurse or doctor gave them a business card with the number to the hotline nurse company they had under contract to handle health related issues by phone. John was told they kept records of who called about what problem for what child. They made several calls to this service, when John noticed Casey's skull seemed to be misshapen (dome shaped) and they had him change her sleeping position, which corrected the problem overnight, when Casey had breathing difficulties from lung congestion and they talked the parents through the Baby Heimlich manuever which John applied hourly all night until she coughed up a plug of mucus and was able to breath freely and sleep, when he saw her bloodshot eyes and lids and they said she "just had colic" and it was from crying, when the cold sore type lesions erupted, and they told him it was probably just cold sores and to apply lotion to it, and when John dropped the baby while playing with her. That nurse went through a lengthy checklist for signs of injury, told him she was find and he didn't need to take her to the doctor. That was the only "injury" he called about, which turned out not to be an injury, not so much as a bump on the head or a bruise, and the baby was sleeping quietly and peacefully when her mother returned home. Both parents told Det. Hefty about the calls to the hotline. Instead of going to Mary Bridge Hospital and getting the hotline number and company records of the calls, he went to Tacoma General and spoke to FLOOR NURSES, who of course knew nothing about these calls, and kept no records should anyone call and talk to them, which is not their function. Then he was able to imply that both parents lied when questioned separately because the Tacoma floor nurses knew nothing and had no record of calls from Casey's parents.
    
• "Casey was hospitalized for 11 days to provide pain medication, and to assist her in breathing and eating. Her grandmother was allowed to visit during the hospitalization since the parents were not."
  • When Casey was first brought to the pediatric clinic for a well-baby appt. the day she was sent to the hospital, she didn't seem to be in distress until laid on cold scales. Her breathing was normal until she started crying, and there were no neurological signs, according to the clinical record before it was altered. Casey was put on morphine which is counter-indicated when there are head injuries, and it also would have masked symptoms, like the frog-leg posture infants adopt to ease the thigh pain of Barlow's. There was no indication of breathing difficulties according to the clinical records, but they gave her a breathing tube anyway. Several days in, she developed swallowing difficulties after having already been a poor feeder, and the medical staff was so convinced she had been abused, thanks to the pediatrician, and that she was suffering from burns down the esophogus or in the stomach that they did a surgical procedure to view and biopsy the area. She quit breathing and had to be resuscitated...and they found nothing at all. So, she almost died on the table for nothing. Swallowing difficulty is a diagnostic symptom of Barlow's. But the feeding tube probably did help her by force feeding and getting some nutrition in her, although they had problems with different formulas and had to go back to the soy formula John had her on to start with, when Melissa wasn't able to pump enough milk to keep her fed. The parents were barred from seeing Casey, further traumatizing her undoubtedly. She was described later as suffering from "separation anxiety."
    
• "In a meeting with Ms. Berest at her home, she denied ever shaking Casey or doing anything to cause her harm. She denied seeing Mr. Laverty ever hurt Casey, although admitted to teling him he was sometimes too rough with Casey. Ms. Berest believes that she was being overly protective since she was a new mom."
  • Melissa was trying to make herself look better. She would leave Casey in a bassinett all day. John came home from work and immediately changed Casey's diaper, fed her, bathed her and spent all of his time home holding her and taking care of her. He had experience with an older child and had to teach Melissa everything about child care because she had no experience with babies. She didn't even know what kind of formula she used when the pediatrician asked. There was a "disconnect" between mother and daughter noted by the Physician's Assistant at the pediatrician's office. However, John doesn't believe she did anything to hurt Casey, and she never saw anything but John doting on her and taking care of her. The only "roughness" she ever complained about was John bouncing the baby in his hands to make her laugh. Both mothers observed that. Melissa was afraid it would cause "Shaken Baby Syndrome" which even the national organization denies on their website, because people are so paranoid about these normal behaviors being dangerous due to all of the publicity. John was only alone with Casey once, on the Friday before the monday she went to the hospital, so Melissa would have known if he had ever done harm.
    
• "Mr. Laverty denied ever shaking Casey. He reported, as did Ms. Berest, that Casey had been congested on the Tuesday the week before and they were advised by the nursing line to pat Casey's back and then suction her mouth. Mr. Laverty admitted to doing back pats throughout the night. The following morning they noticed that Casey had what appeared to be a bad cold sore on her mouth. They also state that she began having a high pitched cry that was ear piercing."
  • No one shook Casey. According to SBS theory at the time, she would have had RH, SDH, brain swelling and become unconscious immediately with no "lucid" period. The congestion began around 11:00PM that Tuesday night. John called the nursing hotline and they had him do the Baby Heimlich procedure while Melissa gave him directions from the nurse, describing it exactly as one can find it online, with the back patting done with fingers while the baby was on his lap over his knees on her stomach. He did it hourly until she coughed up a yellow mucus plug several hours later and was able to breath easily and sleep peacefully, and then he went to work. Melissa reported that the abnormal crying started around noon. When John got home from work that day, he saw a brownish stain around her chin that he thought might be windburn from having been out in the cold air the night before Christmas shopping. She had been bundled up except for her face. What they thought was a cold sore started at the corner of the mouth as a tiny lesion and became larger, and 3 other spots broke out under her lower lip, almost evenly spaced out to the corner of her mouth on the other side, as can be seen in photos. He called the nurses about the crying and bloodshot eyes and then called again in a day or so about the lesions, which he assumed and the nurse believed were probably just cold sores associated with what they thought was nothing more than a bad cold. They told him to apply A&D lotion, which he was still doing at the pediatrician's office as observed by the PA in her notes. Claiming that John "admitted" patting Casey throughout the night makes it sound like a "confession". He simply described following the nurses's instructions successfully and helping his child clear out her lungs very gently, and suctioning her mouth to keep the passages clear. The high pitched crying was off and on. The nurses convinced them it was "colic".
    
• "Mr. Laverty stated that on the Friday or Saturday before the well child check-up, he was alone with Casey for a couple of hours. He admitted that he had been tossing Casey up in the air and accidentally dropped her on the ground. Mr. Laverty states that it was later that night that they felt the lump on Casey's head. He report that they called the nursing line and were told that babys sometime get that from laying on one side. Mr. Laverty did not tell the nurse that he had dropped her that day."
  • DSHS got everything mixed up here. It was on a Friday night that John was alone with Baby Casey while Melissa went out for coffee with her estranged mother. He was sitting on his bed, not "tossing Casey up in the air" but bouncing her in his hands (horizontally) to make her laugh, playing with her when she slipped through his hands. Her short fall was broken first by his hands, then she hit a padded laundry basket beside the bed, on to a carpeted floor. He immediately called the nursing hotline and the nurse on call went through a lengthy checklist for symptoms, determined that Casey was uninjured, and that he didn't need to take her to the doctor or hospital. She had stopped crying as soon as he picked her up. There was never a "bump" on her head, and certainly not when she went to the well-baby appointment the following Monday and was checked all over. No bump, no bruise, no sign of head injury or neuro symptoms except for the crying. The "head" incident was days before that when he came home from work at night and thought her head looked misshapen, like it was become dome-shaped on top. Not a lump or bump, but changing shape. That's when the nurse laughed it off and told him to change her sleeping position and "get some sleep". It was back to normal-looking the next morning. Some research indicates that a condition of flattening of the skull might take place over a period of time in some babies, but for a skull to change shape and then back again that quickly indicates an unusually soft skull, like that found in Vit D deficiency where the sides and back of the skull can be so soft that they can be depressed with just finger pressure. Again, the changing skull shape and dropping Casey were two separate events days apart and Laverty called the hotline both times. Some of this information appears to have come from the investigating officer rather than John. Det. Hefty falsified a number of things in his report, including the claim that John never asked for help after dropping the baby. The nursing service records should prove otherwise, but have to be acquired through subpoena.
    
  • Once "child abuse" is suggested (by the angry pediatrician after John was critical of the medical care and his motives), everyone jumps on the bandwagon and interprets everything in these terms, even when the pieces don't fit, and some are even willing to change the facts to fit the theory.
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• "A criminal investigation continues due to the injuries not matching the descriptions of the incidents. A specialist from Mary Bridge reports that Casey was shaken, which is what wold cause some of the broken bones, the retinal hemorhaging, and the subdural bleeds. Neither parent has admitted to this, and both continue to support each other's innocence."
  • In 2000 when this "investigation" took place the SBS hypothesis stated that the diagnostic symptoms of RH, SDH and DAI (a particular kind of brain swelling associated with severe impact) were caused by shaking forces equal to or greater than a fall from a multi-story building or being unrestrained in a vehicle impact of 30-40mph, that unconsciousness would happen immediately without a "lucid interval" and that without documented evidence or an independent witness to accidental injury, unless the caretakers admitted to this kind of felony assault, anything they said was a lie. At that time few people questioned how shaking could generate those degree of forces and cause that kind of brain injury, particularly without damage to the neck and cerebral spinal column, or the fact that other kinds of whiplash injuries without head impact didn't cause the symptoms. Even now in 2012 many doctors and scientists refuse to acknowledge that the old medical criteria no longer fits, although "impact" has been added to the description, which has been changed from SBS to "Abusive Head Trama (or Injury). However, injury experts world-wide say no--manual shaking can't generate those forces, at least without head impact, and not without severe neck injury. Neck injury that affects the brainstem could stop respiration and oxygen to the brain (hypoxia) which in turn could could brain swelling and bleeding into the subdural spaces and behind the eyes, but this kind of neck injury isn't found in these cases, and hypoxia isn't acknowleged as the cause of the symptoms in the medico-legal system in spite of studies that indicate otherwise.
    
  • In this case, a pediatrician falsely listed bleeding behind the eyes in his clinic record in spite of not having the equipment or time to do this kind of diagnosis, and that record stuck, in spite of an opthomologist doing a proper examination and denying RH. Casey was lucid and responsive with no neurological signs when taken to the clinic, and only began "inconsolable, high-pitched crying" during her exam at the moment she was laid on a cold scales, was documented to have no skull fractures by x-rays taken at the hospital, and when tiny subdural bleeds and other pinpoint bleeds were discovered on her second day in the hospital, the doctor said they were "only hours old", which meant they occurred AFTER she was admitted to the hospital "for further testing", as the parents were told.
    
  • Each parent volunteered information about their own actions that they thought might possibly have caused head injuries, since they assumed they must have caused them. Melissa said she bumped into a wall (or door jamb--reports varied) while carrying Casey the night before the well-baby appointment, and "might have" bumped her head. And John told the doctors about having accidentally dropped Casey while sitting on his bed and bouncing her in his hands in play on the previous Friday before her Monday appointment. But neither parent saw any kind of abusive behavior in the other. Melissa was offered a plea deal and reduced sentence if she testified against John, and offered to do so, but she had nothing. There was no abusive or injurious behavior to report. The medical reports themselves--of brain injury being only hours old on Casey's second day in the hospital, and being admitted with NO skull fractures, made the timeline of supposed head injuries caused by the parents impossible. As for callus formation on the ribs and clavicles, John assumed that the Baby Heimlich manuever must have caused fractures, even though his "treatment" was finger tapping on her back, although he wondered about having hugged her too tightly (in fright) after having dropped her, but that timeline doesn't work either. Callus formation takes longer. And there was no mention of the fact that 10 days later in the hospital, 10 more ribs showed callus formation. Did medical professionals break more ribs after she was admitted to the hospital? If so, they were very abusive to her, or those were exceptionally fragile bones that broke. Again, there was no sign of bone dislocation, only callus formation associated with healing fractures--but also identical to signs of calcifying subperiosteal hemorrhages found in Barlow's disease, although the location of the callus growth on ribs and clavicles was also consistent with Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis, including the swollen lower face seen in Cases forensic photos but ignored by doctors. (Some medical authorities now believe that Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis is a form or stage of infantile scurvy)

    Unidentified infant from textbook photos: Diagnosis--Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis

    Baby Casey forensic photos B&W: Diagnosis--Shaken Baby Syndrome

    
    
  • The problem with a Barlow's diagnosis is that when it was more prevalent, or at least more easily and frequently diagnosed, it usually developed at around 7 months of age in infants who had been fed on formula for that long instead of being breast fed. It wouldn't have occured to doctors that this condition developed in the womb due to Melissa's anorexic diet of 8-10 cups of coffee per day with huge amounts of sugar (she went through a 5-pound sack of sugar every few days), junk food, refusal to take prenatal vitamins, smoking, 10-pound pregnancy weight gain and prior symptoms of vitamin deficiency. They didn't consider it because they didn't ask and because a pediatrician who was insulted by John's attitude towards the quality of health care his child had already suffered from primed doctors to look for abuse instead of any other causes before Casey even arrived at the hospital.
    
  • The common diagnostic symptoms for Infantile Cortical Hyperostosis are fractures in the ribs and clavicles and a swollen lower mandible. It would normally resolve spontaneously at around 6-7 months unless it took a lethal turn and caused the death of the infant.
    
  • Barlow's disease (infantile scurvy) doesn't manifest with the same easily recognizable symptoms as adult scurvy because the most recognized sign is gum disease, and that doesn't occur until after the teeth have erupted. Infantile scurvy is still a disease of "capillary fragility" which means a hemorrhagic condition that can cause bleeding anywhere, including on the skin of the bone, but it has many, many systemic symptoms also, such as respiratory infection, skin conditions, bone disease, and other symptoms too numerous to list here.
    
  • Animal studies by famed veterinarian Dr. Robert Reisinger demonstrated that vaccines cause a rise in blood histamine levels, which is in itself a hemorrhagic condition. Blood histamines are neutralized by Vit C, which could cause a depletion of Vit C, particularly in formula-fed infants who might already have low levels of C not found in breast-fed infants. Normal breast milk is loaded with C. Aside from that, the components in vaccines could also stress the immune system and use up more C, throwing an infant into a deficiency state--infantile scurvy--following vaccination. A number of prominent doctor researchers believe that SBS is exactly that--undiagnosed, altered and excellerated infantile scurvy.
  • Some researchers speculate that the brain inflammation caused by the over-stimulated immune system triggered by vaccines causes brain swelling (encephalitis) bleeding, rather that injuries caused by shaking/impact, although head impact has always been known capable of causing brain swelling and bleeding.