Every day at 4:30, the peds neuro on-call pager is handed off to the night team. So any page that comes after 3:30 or so is a HUGE hassle. Which was why the page last Friday at 4:00 pm made us all roll our eyes and groan loudly. Very loudly. Like person-passing-by-in-the-hall-does-a-double-take loudly.
That particular page was about a young baby who had just been brought in with non-accidental head trauma and seizures. For those of you not in the know, 'non-accidental' is a legalistic euphemism for 'child abuse.' Babies don't really do all that much. They eat, they sleep, and they cry. Unfortunately, that crying can lead to frustration and anger, and a phenomenon known as Shaken Baby Syndrome. This particular child has it about as bad as it gets. This is a person that has no chance at all of being normal - that is if they even survive.
I've seen several cases of shaken babies, along with other forms of child abuse during my few months on peds rotations. The thing that is striking me about this case is that they still don't know who did it. In my (albeit limited) experience, they've known, or at least had a really good idea, who the culprit was. No one is breaking down in this case though. We suspect it was one of the parents. But we don't know which one. And, as awful as I feel for the baby, I can't help hurting for the parent that is hiding such a dark and painful secret inside.
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