Dr Harold Buttram and His Stance on Shaken Baby Syndrome
The medical community has lost another great one. Harold Buttram, MD, passed away at the age of 90 on January 27, 2016. He will be remembered by many as a thoughtful, forward thinking, humble, and incredibly kind physician who fervently fought for the health of our children.
At the end of this blog we link to four articles he wrote for Latitudes.org. Two focus on the harm toxic environments and foods are doing to the current younger generation. Another discusses whether current vaccine programs are causing genetic changes in children.
But I’d like to focus on an additional medical topic that was close to his heart: shaken baby syndrome. Dr. Buttram contended that the medical diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome is not a legitimate diagnosis and can lead to judicial errors. In truth, some parents who first experienced the trauma of the death of their baby, have been sentenced to decades in prison for causing this “syndrome” in their child. Yet they were innocent.
I met Dr. Buttram in 2004, when he was involved in the defense of a young man who had been convicted of shaking his baby to death. He had already served six year years of a life sentence. Dr. Buttram spent hundreds of hours researching the case, and flew to Florida from Pennsylvania for a week-long appeals trial—all at no charge. He knew an injustice had been done and he wanted to help, not just for this man, but for other parents who had been wrongly charged.
In this situation, the baby reacted dramatically to numerous vaccines that were given, all at once, while the infant was ill. He was rushed to the hospital by his father, and while there, the infant received an overdose of heparin which caused slight bleeding in the brain. Additional medical complications occurred, none of which pointed to abuse. But those facts were not known at the time of sentencing. Neither was it known that the State medical examiner had falsified his autopsy report (he was later dismissed from his position because of this).
Dr. Buttram was one of others who were involved in the appeals process. The effort resulted in an acquittal.
Of course, there are certainly some cases of terrible abuse, and this is not meant to minimize those situations. But this week, ABC News ran a story about court cases that now challenge the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome and focus on the fact that medical complications can be misinterpreted as abuse. I wish Dr. Buttram were here to read it.
See Dr. Buttram’s article on shaken baby syndrome, below.
Shaken Baby Syndrome: False Concepts and Misdiagnoses
Other articles by Dr. Buttram
Are Current Vaccine Programs Causing Genetic Changes in Children?
A Health Crisis for our Children
Are Food Processing and Commercial Chemicals Hurting Your Kids
Note: The father Dr. Buttram supported was Alan Yurko. I also attended the hearing in support of his appeal. A report of the case was printed in the British Medical Journal: Yurko Case.
