On the witness stand Wednesday, Melissa and Rudy Delgado reportedly recounted the day, when they realized something was wrong with their 8-month-old son, Xavier.
It was something they had experienced reportedly several months before, when the baby was rushed to the hospital after becoming unresponsive while at a baby sitter’s house.
That day – Sept. 24, 2009 – things looked worse, though.
“I knew there was something really wrong with him when I seen him in September,” Rudy Delgado testified. “I remember standing back in September, like, ‘This isn’t my baby.’”
Prosecutors and defense attorneys reportedly agree on one thing: Xavier, who would have turned 3 in January, suffered from bleeding on the brain while in the care of his baby sitter, Patti J. Mock.
What they don’t agree on is how the baby was injured.
The Delgados were the first to testify at Mock’s trial. The 64-year-old Rock Falls woman is charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the baby’s death.
Prosecutors say Mock shook Xavier violently, causing his head to hit something.
A pediatric doctor from the University of Illinois Chicago Hospital determined that the baby was “shaken so hard” he suffered a fatal injury, Liston told jurors.
Not so, defense attorney Jim Mertes told jurors. “This is a false case of blame to explain a tragedy” he said, adding that it appears the boy had a medical condition that was undiagnosed.
According to Melissa Delgado’s testimony:
She dropped off Xavier at Mock’s home just before 8 a.m. Sept. 24. Xavier, whom Mock had cared for for about 3 weeks, seemed fine that morning and that day before.
Around noon, Mock called and said that Xavier had reportedly “projectile vomited” on her and that “nothing like this has ever happened to me before.” Mock called 911 and the Delgados raced to meet them at CGH Medical Center.
The baby was airlifted to a Rockford hospital, where doctors performed emergency surgery to “get a blood clot out of his head.” After 4 days in the hospital, they said “there was nothing they could do” and that the best-case scenario was that he would be on life support and “be a vegetable,” she testified.
“We didn’t want that for him, so we took him off life support,” she said through tears. “He lasted 33 hours and passed away on the 29th at 9:29 p.m.”
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If you have any questions or concerns about what can be done to help babies who have been shaken, or families of babies who have died, please call Christopher Keane and The Keane Law Firm toll-free for free consultation at (888) 592-5437 (KIDS), click on contact us here, or use the web form provided at http://www.keanelaw.com
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