*Excerpt taken from HERE
Remember all those PSAs reminding people to "never shake a baby?" Well, there was a reason for those ads -- shaking a baby is incredibly dangerous (not to mention cruel and sick), a reality that a Queens baby, who currently is fighting for her life, learned the hard way.
Just to make this story slightly more despicable, the baby is only 2 months old.
According to the Queens District Attorney's Office, the baby's father, 27-year-old Israel Garcia, admitted to shaking the baby on several occasions. On Monday, he took his baby-shaking too far, and his daughter is now on life-support at a local hospital with bleeding to the brain and other life-threatening injuries.
Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown says the baby -- Maria Grodillo, who was born on March 12 -- was taken to the emergency room at Elmhurst Medical Center on Monday in an "unresponsive condition." Maria was then taken to New York University Hospital, where it was determined that she was suffering from multiple subdural hematomas (bleeding on the brain), retinal hemorrhages in the left eye (bleeding in the eye), old and new brain injuries (resulting from trauma and oxygen deprivation to the brain), multiple old rib fractures and various bruises on her left foot and back.
Doctors determined that the injuries were consistent with "non-accidental inflicted abuse head trauma," which includes Shaken Baby Syndrome. The rib fractures were determined to be consistent with an adult grabbing her and squeezing her rib cage.
According to the criminal complaint, Garcia admitted to police that earlier this month he came home from work "tired and frustrated." When his infant daughter started crying, it sent him over the edge, so he squeezed her around her torso and shook her up and down. He told police he thought he might have injured Maria's ribs at the time, but declined to tell anyone.
Garcia also admitted that on Monday he was alone with Maria when she woke up from a nap and started to cry. Rather than acting like a parent and comforting the girl, he shook her for three minutes -- until she stopped crying and appeared to go to sleep.
Maria wasn't sleeping, though, she just stopped breathing thanks to the attack from her own father.
Noticing that something was wrong, Garcia then called 911.
"According to the charges, the infant suffered severe brain and eye injuries, multiple rib fractures and various bruises on her left foot and back," Brown says. "Despite increased efforts by medical and law enforcement personnel to educate the public on the dangers of shaking a baby, we are still seeing far too many cases of children dying or being permanently disabled, both mentally and physically, at the hands of their care givers. Under no circumstances should a baby be shaken. Three seconds of shaking is all it takes to cause irreparable injury or even death."
Garcia's been hit with one count each of first-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He was ordered held without bail. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
Brown also notes that if Maria dies, the charges against Garcia would be upgraded.
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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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