Was the Baby Shaken - letter from Alan Clemetson, MD Tulane U Med School

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From 2002

http://www.freeyurko.bizland.com/townsend.html

Was the Baby Shaken?

Editor,

Child abuse laws have given rise to many accusations of " Shaken Baby

Syndrome, " which has become a popular diagnosis to explain infant

deaths, and even for living infants who are brought to an emergency

room following a fall. Much is made of the finding of pinpoint

petechial hemorrhages in the retina at the back of the eye, but the

existence and extent of such hemorrhages are dependent on the

capillary strength or fragility, the strength or weakness of the

smallest blood vessels, which can be affected by many different

conditions. In fact, an infant can die with extensive retinal

hemorrhages, a blood clot under the capsule of the brain, extensive

bruises, broken bones and sores that will not heal, due to Barlow's

disease, without having been subjected to anything but the tenderest

of loving care.

Barlow's disease is another name for infantile scurvy or vitamin C

deficiency, which was a well-recognized condition among bottle fed

infants, both in Europe and in the United States in the first half of

the 20th century. It occurred not only among the poor who did not

know or could not afford to buy orange juice as a supplement to the

milk diet, but also among the infants of some affluent members of

society who boiled the milk to destroy the germs of tuberculosis, so

destroying all vitamin C. Other infants developed Barlow's disease

due to the feeding of a commercial " malt soup, " whose alkalinity

destroyed vitamin C.

Today Barlow's disease is rare, but could perhaps still occur if

people were to go overboard with heating the bottle in a microwave

oven, or if they do not know that natural apple juice is a very poor

substitute for orange juice. One hundred grams of fresh orange juice

(3-1/4 fluid ounces) contains about 49 mg of vitamin C, but nowadays

it is the fashion to give infants apple juice instead; unfortunately

there is only 1 mg. of vitamin C in the same amount of fresh apple

juice, so unless the parent knows to buy apple juice with vitamin C,

there can be a risk of vitamin C deficiency.

People will rightly say that severe vitamin C deficiency is rare in

the Western World today; not only is it rare, it is even more rarely

diagnosed, as the bleeding gums which are so characteristic of adult

scurvy, are never seen in toothless infants. It is bacteria between

the crevice between the tooth and the gum that cause local infection;

infection causes local vitamin

C depletion and vitamin C deficiency predisposes to infection, so a

vicious cycle can develop, leading to the foul mouth and the bleeding

gums of scurvy. This does not occur in edentulous infants. Multiple

bone fractures and subperiosteal hemorrhages do occur in Barlow's

disease, but all too often now the subperiosteal hemorrhages, lifting

the growing sheath right off the surface of the bone, are thought to

be a result of the fractures, instead of being recognized as

revealing their cause. Even this X-ray finding, formerly known as

being characteristic of the healing phase of scurvy, is now often

said to be evidence of child abuse. Of course vitamin C deficiency is

not the only cause of spontaneous bone fractures in infants; they

also in occur in osteogenesis imperfecta or fragilitas osseum;

moreover, capillary fragility occurs in many other conditions ranging

from measles to thrombocytopenia purpura.

Our recent knowledge of the role played by an increased blood

histamine concentration, or histaminemia, as the leading cause of

capillary fragility in vitamin C deficiency, enables us to understand

the additive effect of all other causes of histaminemia. We now know

that bruising and bleeding of scurvy result from an increase in the

blood histamine concentration, which causes the endothelial cells

lining the inside of the blood vessels, to become separated from one

another; there is no change in the blood clotting mechanism, but a

profound disturbance of the endothelial architecture. It is now known

that the blood histamine level begins to increase as soon as the

plasma ascorbic acid or vitamin C concentration falls below the

normal level of 1 mg per 100 ml, even though frank scurvy does not

occur until it falls below one fifth of that value. Blood plasma

vitamin C levels and whole blood histamine levels show a remarkable

inverse relationship, both in guinea pigs and in humans, but many

toxins and other factors, including vaccinationsand inoculations also

cause an increase in the blood histamine level. We are all aware of

the effects of increased tissue histamine concentrations, revealing

themselves as nettle rash, hay fever or asthma, but an increased

blood histamine level can be a silent killer. We now must appreciate

that the degree of histaminemia and the resultant capillary fragility

can result from a concatenation of circumstances. We may have an

infant with a borderline vitamin C depletion, which on its own would

have been relatively innocuous, now becoming more severe as a result

of infection or some other stress; even the common cold or coryza can

halve the blood plasma vitamin C concentration in 24 hours.

Furthermore, we now know that heavy metals like mercury, copper, or

even iron ion excess can deplete vitamin C reserves, so we have to

wonder about the effects of the mercurial antiseptic thimerosal used

in some pediatric inoculants. Moreover, it has been shown that the

toxins or toxoids of the usual inoculants cause increased blood

histamine levels in animals. So we must consider the effects of all

the inoculants given together to an infant already ill or vitamin C

depleted; the blood histamine level, the capillary fragility and the

likelihood of petechial hemorrhages will be the result of all these

factors added together.

We should no longer be looking for one cause in the death or the

injury of an infant. We should take into account all the factors

leading up to an event or to the final demise. Now, with so many

inoculants being given at the same time, we must consider their

collective toxicity. All bacterial inoculants are toxoids or toxins,

but they vary in toxicity and sometimes the toxicity of two toxins

may be greater than the sum of the two. Fortunately these questions

can be sorted out, and one way to do it is by measuring the blood

histamine levels before and at different times after single or

multiple inoculations. Also it will be possible to study the

protective effects of vitamin C in reducing the histaminemia.

Ascorbic acid aids the conversion of histamine to hydantoin-5-acetic

acid for elimination and has been shown to protect against the

toxicity of inoculations, both in animals and humans. Even some

soldiers going to the Gulf War suffered severe reactions to some of

their inoculations, so this matter is of concern to the armed forces

as well as the rest of us.

Physicians are aware of the fact that vitamin C deficiency impairs

the hydroxylation of the amino acids proline and lysine, which are

essential building blocks for the synthesis of collagen and that

fibroblasts and related chondroblast, osteoblast and odontoblast

cells manufacture collagen as the foundation for fibrous tissue,

cartilage, bone and tooth dentin, respectively. Moreover, we have

known that the larger blood vessels are encased by an outer coat of

fibrous tissue, but the bleeding of scurvy comes from the capillaries

and smallest venules which have very little in the way of a collagen

sheath. It is the inverse relationship between the vitamin C and

blood histamine level that is not widely known; as a result, there is

little understanding of the way in which vitamin C depletion,

infection and toxins or toxoids have an additive effect leading to

capillary fragility, easy bruising and retinal petechiae.

All mammals except us, the apes, monkeys, guinea pigs and a mutant

rat make their own ascorbic acid from simple sugars in the liver, so

they do not need vitamin C in their diet. Monkeys, apes, and guinea

pigs make up for this defect by eating plenty of fresh fruit and

greens, but we suffer when we try to live on stored foods from the

center of the supermarket. We are defective mammals, lacking fur, and

lacking the ability to make our own vitamin C. We take care to

provide ourselves with clothes and housing to make up for our lack of

fur, but we do not always take enough care to make up for our inborn

error of metabolism. It is odd that medical schools, which teach so

much about DNA and the genetic code, do not pay more attention to

teaching nutrition and about a major human genetic defect shared by

us all. The pertinence of these observations can be readily

appreciated when one considers the grave injustice suffered by Alan

Yurko of Orlando, Florida, who was accused of " Shaken Baby Syndrome, "

convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.

After becoming pregnant Francine Yurko became sick and remained so

during her pregnancy, often to the point of dehydration, going from

her original weight of 130 lbs. down to 120 lbs., at one point and

finally coming back to her original weight of 130 lbs. at time of

delivery. She said she was too sick to take her vitamins. When one

considers that the current recommended weight gain for pregnancy is

25 to 30 lbs., it is clear that she was malnourished and so was her

unborn child. The infant was born prematurely, weighing 5 lbs. 8 oz.

and had several medical problems including respiratory distress

syndrome, pneumonitis and jaundice. The jaundice was still evident

four weeks after leaving the hospital; its health was further

impaired when it received 6 inoculations (for diphtheria, whooping

cough, tetanus,influenza B, oral polio vaccine and hepatitis at 8

weeks of age. Eleven days later the infant developed a high-pitched

cry and his skin became warm to touch. Having been warned at an

earlier office visit that these things might ensue, Francine Yurko

was not overly alarmed.

Two days later when Alan Yurko was alone at home caring for the

infant and his four year-old daughter, the infant wheezed, gagged and

stopped breathing, so he picked him up by the heels and slapped him

on the bottom to get him breathing again. He rushed the infant to the

hospital, but three days later it suffered another respiratory arrest

in hospital and died at 10 weeks of age. Severe anemia, with a

hemoglobin of 7.8 grams and the jaundice were entirely consistent

with Barlow's disease. The only visible mark on his body when he was

admitted to the hospital was a small bruise on the right lower eyelid

where his feeding bottle had hit him when his sister dropped it.

Post mortem examination showed two more bruises on the temporal areas

of his head and fresh bleeding into the right eye, but not the left.

Cerebral edema and fresh subdural hemorrhages were present,

especially on the right side of the brain, but also at the base of

the brain, where pontine hemorrhage could well have accounted for his

fever of 105oF. There were healing fractures at the costochondral

junctions of the 5th, 6th and 7th ribs on the left side. Fracture of

the 10th rib may have occurred as a result of handling during the

autopsy. Diffuse interstitial pneumonitis was also observed.

A diagnosis of " shaken baby syndrome " was made by the pathologist, in

concordance with the child abuse laws which require the reporting of

child abuse whenever there is suspicion of it. The prosecutors

suspected both parents of child abuse, but Francine Yurko refused to

implicate her husband and Alan Yurko refused to plead guilty to a

lesser charge, because he knew he was innocent. Clearly this infant's

death resulted from a concatination of unfortunate circumstances

causing vitamin C deficiency and capillary fragility.

Many of us would say that it is unwise to give inoculations to a

premature infant, especially when it was poorly, but it is easy to be

wise after the event. No one should ever be accused of child abuse on

such flimsy evidence, and certainly not without a blood analysis for

vitamin C and histamine. If there is any justice I this world Alan

Yurko should be released from prison and so should all others falsely

accused of child abuse.

Alan Clemetson, MD

Professor Emeritus

Tulane University School of Medicine

-transcribed by E. Kreider, RN, CPC

Alan Clemetson, MD

Professor Emeritus

Tulane University School of Medicine

COPYRIGHT 2002 The Townsend Letter Group

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group

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Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

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