Saturday 19 January 2013

SBS: Quentin Louis: Court Orders New Trial in 2005 Shaken Baby Case


A A  
Reporter: WSAW Staff
A new trial date has been set for the Athens man convicted of shaking his four-month-old daughter to death.
An appeals court upheld a decision to give Quentin Louis a new trial based on information about what causes symptoms associated with shaken baby syndrome.
During his jury trial in June 2006, an investigator took the stand and said Louis said his daughter, Madelyn wouldn't stop crying so he held her up and shook her. That's when she stopped breathing. It happened on March 18, 2005 at his home in Athens. She died at a hospital three days later from severe brain trauma.
In 2006, Quentin Louis was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crime.
He will face a jury all over again at the end of October.

SBS: Christopher Gebhart faces 5 to 23 years for manslaughter




Jan. 17, 2013  

Gebhart..
A previously convicted sex offender who is now accused in a shaken baby death case has agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter and child abuse, and faces a sentencing range of five to 23 years in prison.
Christopher Gebhart, 25, is set to officially plead guilty during a Superior Court of Guam hearing on Feb. 13. During a court hearing yesterday, Gebhart's attorney said the plea deal was being finalized.
"We have the plea and he is going to sign it," said attorney Jeff Moots, with Gebhart sitting at his right side. "We just need to have it executed and filed."
After court, Moots said the plea agreement includes charges of first-degree felony manslaughter and third-degree felony child abuse. Once Gebhart has pleaded guilty, attorneys will argue over an appropriate sentence within the five-to-23-year range, Moots said.
Gebhart is one of several people who were arrested after the 2009 death of 1-year-old Skylin Haechi Santos, who died of shaken baby syndrome. Gebhart was charged with aggravated murder in 2009, but the indictment was later dismissed because of prosecutorial error. He was re-indicted in April.
According to court documents, Gebhart was the boyfriend of the child's baby sitter. Gebhart allegedly slapped, threw and shook the young girl, leaving her with "traumatic brain injuries," court document state.
The baby sitter is Sharika Pangelinan, who still faces a murder charge.
Pangelinan is considering a proposed plea agreement, said defense attorney Doug Moylan. The attorney declined to discuss the components of the plea deal, but he said Pangelinan will most likely be ready to plead guilty on Feb. 13 also.
The young girl's mother, Valerie Santos, was sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree felony child abuse in June 2011. She left the young girl with Gebhart and Pangelinan for extended periods of time, and did nothing when injuries began to surface on her child, according to court documents.
Gebhart is also a registered sex offender. He was convicted of child molestation in a 2005 case in which he sexually assaulted a girl at Guam Memorial Hospital. He was sentenced to five years in prison for the molestation, but three years were suspended.

SBS: Kenneth Lathrop charged in ‘shaken baby’ case



LOCKPORT – A 26-year-old man charged in a suspected case of “shaken baby syndrome” was to appear today in Lockport City Court, according to State Police.

Kenneth S. Lathrop Jr., of Ruhlman Road, was charged Wednesday with a felony count of assault and a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child. Troopers said they were contacted by Niagara County Child Protective Services and told that a child, less than a year old, was being treated at Women & Children’s Hospital in Buffalo for injuries consistent with the syndrome, in which a child suffers brain injuries from being shaken violently.

Lathrop was caring for the child at the time the injuries were suffered, troopers said.

Following arraignment before Lockport Town Justice Leonard Tilney on Wednesday, Lathrop was sent to the Niagara County Jail, in lieu of $5,000 cash bail, pending today’s court appearance.

SBS: QuentinLouis: Dates set for retrial in shaken baby death



Jan 14, 2013   |  Quentin J. Louis appears in court in 2005 on charges of first-degree reckless homicide.
Quentin J. Louis appears in court in 2005 on charges of first-degree reckless homicide. / Daily Herald Media file photo
Dates for a new trial have been set in the case of an Athens man convicted in the death of his four-month-old daughter.
Quentin Louis, 31, was sentenced in 2006 to 20 years in prison for the March 18, 2005 death of his daughter. According to a criminal complaint, Louis admitted to investigators that he shook the child, whose death was diagnosed as the result of shaken baby syndrome.
In August 2009, Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Howard granted Louis’s request for a new trial because the jury did not hear medical evidence during the trial that challenged shaken baby syndrome. A Wisconsin Appeals Court in March 2011 upheld Howard’s decision.
The cause of symptoms associated with shaken baby syndrome have been disputed in recent years and several high profile shaken baby cases in Wisconsin have been challenged in court.
A 15-day jury trial has been set for Oct. 28 for Louis, who remains jailed on a $50,000 cash bond.

Friday 11 January 2013

SBS: Lynsey Overtone accused


Lake County woman is locked up, accused of shaking her baby so hard, the child had to be taken to the hospital.
Lynsey Overton was arrested after she took her baby to a hospital.
According to deputies, doctors found all the signs of shaken baby syndrome, including blood clots on the brain and bone fractures.
Overton initially blamed her boyfriend, but confessed to police.
She also told officers she didn't feed her baby as often as recommended because she wanted to sleep in.

SBS: Virginia: Julie Calahan gets jail time for baby's death



  • Photo
Mom in court for baby's death

Infant died in 2009 from Shaken Baby Syndrome

Updated: Tuesday, 08 Jan 2013, 7:17 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 08 Jan 2013, 1:57 PM EST
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - A mother will spend the next 15 years in prison for shaking her 11-month-old daughter to death in 2009.
Julie Calahan, 24, was sentenced to time behind bars in connection to the death of her daughter, La Keira, who was found unresponsive at a home in Virginia Beach in May, 2009. La Keira’s uncle, Stephen Calahan, was arrested and charged with murder in La Keria’s death.
In 2012, Facebook posts led police to Julie Calahan. A detective testified Calahan wrote on her Facebook “I was drunk and I got up and shook her.” Calahan was then arrested and charged in the case.
Stephen Calahan was convicted of child neglect in 2010, but the murder charge was never prosecuted.
Additionally, an investigation was launched into Julie Calahan in 2008, when Child Protective Services learned her 4-year-old son was brought to the hospital with severe bruises. The child returned to the hospital several months later with injuries requiring surgery and was then released to foster care.
Tuesday, a judge sentenced Julie Calahan to 10 years in prison for manslaughter and 10 years for child neglect, five of which were suspended.

    SBS: Illinois: Garland Jackson faces felony charges in shaken baby case

    January 3, 2013

    BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL 

    Commercial-News
    DANVILLE — A local man faces charges he shook and injured an infant child on Christmas Day.

    The Vermilion County State’s Attorney’s Office filed charges Thursday against Garland Jackson, 26, of the 400 block of North Beard Street.

    Jackson is charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery of a child under the age of 13 years. One count contends the incident possibly caused permanent disability, making it a Class X felony punishable by up to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

    The second charge is a Class 3 felony contending the battery caused great bodily harm. That charge is punishable by up to a maximum of five years in state prison.

    Vermilion County State’s Attorney Randy Brinegar said the case came to light after the child’s mother, Tarkisha Stanciel, became concerned with the behavior of her 4-week-old boy. The child was unable to follow her movements with his eyes and she noticed some slight trembling in the infant’s extremities.

    The infant was taken to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana by ambulance where Brinegar said he remains for treatment.

    Brinegar said there are indications at this point that the injuries suffered by the child “were consistent with being shaken.” Jackson is the father of the child.

    Brinegar could not release other details regarding the case on Thursday, including how likely it is the child will suffer permanent disability as a result of the injuries.

    “Only time will tell,” he said.

    Jackson made his first appearance in Vermilion County Circuit Court on Thursday via video broadcast from the Public Safety Building jail. His bond was set at $100,000.

    A preliminary hearing for Jackson was set for Jan. 17.

    This is the third case in the last decade involving a shaken baby in Vermilion County.

    Most recently, Ryan Allhands, 22, was sentenced in December 2009 to seven years in state prison in connection with the July 2006 death of 2-year-old Reagan Williams. Allhands was watching Reagan on July 2, 2006 — the day she died. Examinations later determined the injuries to be consistent with Shaken Baby Syndrome.

    He entered a guilty plea to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter, a Class 2 felony, as part of an agreement with the state’s attorney’s office.

    Andrew Drollinger, 23, was sentenced in December 2005 to a little more than eight years in state prison for the death of his ex-girlfriend’s daughter, 10-month-old Macey Duewer. During the trial, Drollinger admitting to shaking the little girl.

    Aside from Thursday’s felony charges, Jackson has no prior convictions in Vermilion County. He was the defendant in a family case filed by Stanciel in 2011 in which the court determined him to be the father of one of Stanciel’s children.

    SBS: Georgia: Dominique Payne charged in shaken baby case



    By Kathy Jefcoats kjefcoats@henryherald.com
    MCDONOUGH — A McDonough man has been charged with aggravated battery for allegedly hurting his infant son in a shaken baby incident just before Christmas.
    Dominique Payne, 24, of Mandalay Parkway is being held in the Henry County Jail on $25,000 bond on charges of aggravated battery and first degree child cruelty, both under the Family Violence Act. He made his first appearance in Henry County Magistrate Court Tuesday morning.
    Chief Judge Robert Godwin set his preliminary hearing for Jan. 29.
    Henry County police said Payne's 3-month-old son was taken to Piedmont Henry Medical Center Dec. 22 with traumatic head injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. The baby was transferred to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Christmas Eve where he was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
    Doctors discovered the baby suffered traumatic brain injury and fractures in both shinbones, said police. Doctors told police the fractures are common in non-accidental traumatic injury.
    If Payne makes bond, Godwin ordered he have no contact with his son.
    A convicted felon who served nearly five years in state prison for voluntary manslaughter has been charged with simple battery against his wife. Roderick Deangelo Stargell, 38, of St. Ives Crossing in Stockbridge, is being held on $1,050 bond.
    Police said Stargell grabbed his wife by the face Monday during an argument, yelled at her and told her not to lie to him.
    According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Stargell served nearly 12 years in state prison for aggravated assault, weapons and drug charges and was released in October 2004.
    He was arrested in May 2005 and convicted of voluntary manslaughter, according to corrections records. Stargell was locked up Dec. 28, 2005 and released May 26, 2010.
    A Stockbridge man was charged with simple battery under the Family Violence Act for a similar alleged attack on the mother of his child. Raymond Glenn Berry Jr., 31 of Nova Circle was arrested Monday for allegedly pushing the woman's face into a wall during an argument.
    Godwin set a $750 bond and bound over the case to State Court.
    An Atlanta woman is out on bond after her arrest for allegedly writing a $2,353 check for dental work. Police said Serlathia Antonia Williamson, 34, of Fairburn Road wrote the check in February to The Dental Place and never made good on it.
    A Stockbridge man is being held in the Henry County Jail on $15,000 bond for burglary and possession of tools for the commission of a crime. Police said Fred Solomon Perkins, 30, of Cobblestone Boulevard broke into a house and stole women's panties.
    Police said they found the underwear in his jacket pocket and a lock pick set in his possession.
    All suspects should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

    SBS: After hung jury, Jason Milby returns to court



    Milby1 photo
    Greg Lynch
    Jason Milby appears with his attorney in Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler's court, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Milby is standing trial for a second time for allegedly shaking his fiance's baby into a vegetative state. Milby stands charged with one count of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering. A jury was hung on his case in June. Staff photo by Greg Lynch
    Milby2 photo
    Greg Lynch
    Jason Milby appears with his attorney in Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler's court, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Milby is standing trial for a second time for allegedly shaking his fiance's baby into a vegetative state. Milby stands charged with one count of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering. A jury was hung on his case in June. Staff photo by Greg Lynch
    Milby3 photo
    Greg Lynch
    Jason Milby appeared with his attorney in Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler's court, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Milby is standing trial for a second time for allegedly shaking his fiance's baby into a vegetative state. Milby stands charged with one count of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering. A jury was hung on his case in June. Staff photo by Greg Lynch
    By Denise G. Callahan
    LEBANON — 
    The Springboro man accused of allegedly shaking his fiance’s toddler into a vegetative state will be retried in Warren County starting today.
    A jury in June was hung after eight hours of deliberations on one count of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering against Jason Milby. Judge Robert Peeler declared a mistrial, and Prosecutor David Fornshell a month later decided to retry the 30-year-old.
    During the trial the jury learned Milby was babysitting the then 2-year-old boy and two of his siblings in July 2011, when the toddler suffered “neurologically devastating” injuries. The child cannot walk, talk, feed himself or see.
    Fornshell said the injuries the boy sustained are consistent with someone who has been in a “horrific car accident or suffered a multi-story fall directly onto their head.” Fornshell is adamant Milby is the culprit.
    “Milby is responsible for putting this child in a permanent vegetative state,” he said. “The explanations that the defense have provided as to how these injuries occurred defy any logic or common sense. This child was severely abused. The defense’s saving grace in the case thus far has simply been that nobody was in the room to witness the abuse going on, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t do this.”
    Defense attorney Jon Paul Rion could not be reached for comment, but said after the mistrial they polled the jurors and more than half felt there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Milby. Rion maintains the boy suffered several tumbles and accidents that could have caused the injuries.
    Two of the doctors who testified in the first trial treated the boy. A new prosecution expert is expected to testify this time, and defense attorney Jon Paul Rion asked Peeler to disallow the testimony. Peeler ruled on Friday, saying because Rion didn’t identify the witness or fully explain his objections, the expert can testify. However, he said Rion has another chance to be heard on his objection prior to the witness taking the stand.
    Fornshell said he couldn’t comment on the new medical expert, but Rion’s motion indicates the person is an alleged expert on “so-called” Shaken Baby Syndrome.
    The toddler’s mother and grandmother both testified for the defense last time.

    SBS: Sweden: Retrial for man convicted in 'shaken baby' case


    9 Jan 13 

    A father convicted of shaking his infant daughter to death has been granted a retrial by Sweden's Supreme Court (Högsta domstolen) in a case that could result in a re-examination of other cases of "shaken baby syndrome".
    The now 31-year-old man was first convicted in 2005 for shaking his six-week-old daughter so violently that she suffered from fatal cerebral haemorrhaging.

    But in a decision issued on Tuesday, the Supreme Court cited new evidence indicating that the man's daughter could have died from injuries caused by something other than violent shaking.

    According to forensic medical expert Peter Krantz, who was quoted in the ruling, "today one can no longer rule out the possibility that the haemorrhaging in the meninges and injuries in the brain of this type can have other causes than bodily harm/shaking".

    The man was first sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter and aggravated assault. He lodged a number of appeals, with the Supreme Court rejecting a previous retrial request back in 2008.

    However, the man fled from Sweden before he began serving his sentence, managing to stay on the run until being arrested in Spain in 2010.

    He was imprisoned in Sweden until last autumn when he was released while the Supreme Court reviewed his latest appeal.

    "He's obviously very happy and relieved," the man's lawyer, Percy Bratt, told Sveriges Television (SVT) following Tuesday's decision that his client had been granted a retrial.

    Medical expert Krantz told SVT it's possible the little girl's death was a result of clotting related to her premature birth.

    He added that the diagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome" can be affected by trends in medical diagnosis which shift over time.

    "The risk is that people become a bit too liberal in their diagnoses," he told SVT, adding that new thinking about the condition may result in more retrial requests.

    "There may be parents in prison today who have been wrongly accused of causing their child's death."

    The case will now be re-examined by the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden (Hovrätten för Västra Sverige).

    SBS: Charges Are Dropped Against Li Ying after 4 years in gaol


    By  and 

    For the nearly four years that she spent in jail on manslaughter charges in the 2007 shaken-baby death of her daughter Annie, Li Ying, 27, a Chinese immigrant, protested her innocence.
    Uli Seit for The New York Times
    Li Ying, 27, who was arrested in 2008, five months after her baby died, refused several offers to plead guilty and be set free.
    And on Wednesday, the eve of her trial, Ms. Li’s legal ordeal ended, as Queens prosecutors dropped the two charges she faced: manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.
    “I knew this day would come,” Ms. Li said after the charges were dropped in State Supreme Court in Queens. “I didn’t do anything wrong, and my husband didn’t do anything wrong.”
    She and her companion, Li Hangbin, 28, were both arrested in March 2008, five months after their 2-month-old daughter died in October 2007. The authorities contend that Mr. Li repeatedly shook her violently in the couple’s Flushing apartment. Annie, who was found unconscious, died five days later.
    The couple was to be tried together, but now it will be only Mr. Li — who in October chose to go to trial rather than accept an offer to plead guilty to lesser charges. He will face charges including second-degree murder. Jury selection is to begin Thursday.
    If convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. Since his arrest, he has been held at Rikers Island, a jail primarily intended for stays of several months.
    In the past year, prosecutors have several times offered Ms. Li a chance to be set free if she pleaded guilty to the charges, but she refused.
    “She turned down deals and said no to anything that would require her admitting to any wrongdoing,” said Ms. Li’s lawyer, Murray Singer.
    She was freed from Rikers Island in March, after a Queens judge reduced her bail to a $10,000 bond from $250,000. She faced charges of manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child for failing to promptly call 911 when Annie became unconscious. Ms. Li has denied the allegations.
    On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped the manslaughter charge based on statements by officials involved with the child’s medical care that Annie’s injuries were so severe that an immediate medical response would not have helped save her life, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.
    Prosecutors, while maintaining that they could have proved that Ms. Li endangered the welfare of her baby, dropped that charge, too, because she had already spent more time in jail than the one-year maximum sentence for that count.
    The case, which has been delayed because of language difficulties, changes in lawyers and extensive court hearings, has drawn interest in the Chinese immigrant community in Flushing, which has raised money for bail and legal fees for the couple.
    When Ms. Li was arrested, she was pregnant with a second child. She gave birth to a daughter while incarcerated and named her Nianni, which means “Remember Annie” in Chinese. The authorities have ordered that the child remain in the care of a Li family friend, and after court on Wednesday, Ms. Li visited Nianni and said she would ask a Family Court judge to allow her to regain custody of the child.

    SBS: Li Hangbin trial commences


    Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
    Li Hangbin, on trial in Queens, is charged with second-degree murder and accused of shaking his baby to death in 2007.
    For almost five years, Li Hangbin, 28, has been jailed on Rikers Island, awaiting trial in the 2007 death of his 2-month-old daughter,Annie.
    Prosecutors say Annie died from shaken-baby syndrome after being violently beaten and shaken by Mr. Li. But on Wednesday, as Mr. Li’s trial began in State Supreme Court in Queens, his lawyer, Cedric Ashley, grabbed his client’s left hand and held it aloft for jurors to see.
    “These hands are not the hands of a killer,” Mr. Ashley said to the jurors. “These are the hands of a loving father.”
    So began Mr. Ashley’s opening statement, which included claims that Annie’s health was already fragile because of a genetic condition. On the night of Oct. 22, 2007, he said, Annie had a heart attack. As Mr. Li rushed to revive her, his lawyer said, he inadvertently bumped her against a table. All of these factors contributed to her falling unconscious and eventually dying, Mr. Ashley said.
    But the prosecutor, Leigh Bishop, presented jurors with a different chain of events, one in which Mr. Li inflicted horrific injuries upon Annie, causing her death by shaken-baby syndrome, which occurs when a baby is repeatedly and violently shaken, causing brain damage.
    Mr. Li and his companion, Li Ying, 27, both Chinese immigrants, were at home with Annie that day when the baby fell ill. Then, just after midnight, the baby had heart failure and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she died five days later.
    The couple were arrested five months afterward and remained in jail while pretrial conferences and other proceedings dragged on. They were to be tried together, but last week, prosecutors dropped the charges against Ms. Li.
    Mr. Li faces charges that include second-degree murder and, if convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. He has declined offers from prosecutors to plead guilty to lesser charges and to be freed on the basis of time served because, his lawyer says, he adamantly denies guilt in the case and is confident he will be exonerated at the trial — one that both sides say will be determined largely by hospital records and testimony from medical experts.
    Ms. Bishop, in her opening statement, said the medical evidence would help prove the shaken-baby death of a healthy “adorable infant” who was “alert and normal in every way.”
    “What happened to baby Annie Li?” she said, and then began describing how she died of “abusive head trauma and shaken-baby syndrome.”
    She told jurors that they would learn that Mr. Li “violently, repeatedly and with depraved indifference” slammed the baby’s head into an object, causing “abusive head trauma.” She said he hit her hard enough to fracture her skull.
    But Mr. Ashley called Mr. Li a good parent and told jurors that, when it came to Annie, “the evidence will show how well-cared-for she was.”
    The heart attack and then the bump, the lawyer said, “were eventually too much for Annie’s system.” He maintained that prosecutors were misrepresenting medical records to prosecute his client, whom he described as a naïve immigrant without the wherewithal to defend himself.
    Mr. Ashley said there was an “absence of evidence” of any physical mistreatment of Annie, whose godfather was the prosecution’s first witness. The godfather, Li Dongyong, a close friend of the couple, was in their apartment for several hours before and while the baby became unconscious and went into cardiac arrest.
    Li Dongyong, who is now a sushi chef in Toronto, testified in Chinese through an interpreter. He said that he knew both Mr. and Ms. Li, stretching back to elementary school in Fujian Province in China. And he set the stage for the events, saying that on the day Annie fell ill, he rushed to the apartment in Flushing and saw that the baby was pale and feverish, but that he never saw Mr. Li strike or otherwise physically harm the child.
    The parents decided to wait before calling 911, he said, but shortly after midnight, he heard them frantically trying to wake Annie, who had turned blue and unresponsive. He said he saw Mr. Li trying to rouse the baby.
    There was a sudden switch of interpreters after Chinese-speaking spectators in the courtroom questioned whether the interpreter was translating testimony too loosely.
    The prosecution also presented testimony from an emergency medical technician who took Annie to the hospital; he said he saw no evidence of a beating. There was also an unusual celebrity appearance by the actress Katie Holmes. Her publicist said Ms. Holmes knew the prosecutor and was there to watch her
    .

    SIDS: Classification system raises issues with infant death statistics


     Jan 5, 2013.

    Data on the number of infant deaths caused by unsafe sleeping conditions have been historically hard to collect.
    Part of the issue lies in the classification of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that each year, more than 4,500 babies die of an unknown cause, and half of these deaths are due to SIDS. During the 90s, however, rates of SIDS started to go down, but overall infant mortality numbers haven’t changed.
    Autopsies decide which deaths are SIDS and which aren’t, said Dr. Abraham Bergman, a professor emeritus in pediatrics at the University of Washington, which skews national data.
    Research has shown that cases previously called SIDS are now being reported as accidental suffocation or undetermined cause, which could mean that unsafe sleep numbers are actually higher than they appear.
    Dr. Douglas Evans of Evans Pediatrics said medicine is getting better at sorting out what causes infant death. A recent report in the American Academy of Pediatrics journal, Pediatrics, found that 70 percent of sudden infant death had an underlying cause.
    “Those are not strictly SIDS death, those have a reason, but if you place a child in an unsafe position and they have one of those other risk factors, it’s almost a perfect storm,” Dr. Evans said.
    Missouri keeps track of its child deaths through the Missouri Child Fatality Review Program, which records every child death under age 17. In 2010, it reported 61 babies died of suffocation and 11 died of SIDS. Of the SIDS cases, two were found sleeping on their stomach or side. In five cases, the baby’s sleeping position was unknown. Of the 11 cases, seven were not sleeping in a firm mattress in a crib.

    SIDS: Prematurity and sudden infant death syndrome: United States 2005–2007


    Journal of Perinatology , (3 January 2013) | doi:10.1038/jp.2012.158
    M H Malloy
    Objective:
    In 1987, the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) rate in the United States was 1.2 per 1000 live births. By the year 2005, the SIDS rate had dropped more than half to approximately 0.5 per 1000 live births. In 1987, the risk of SIDS was 2.32 times greater for extremely premature infants compared with term infants. The objective of this analysis was to determine if with the falling SIDS rate there has been a change in the risk for SIDS among preterm infants.
    Study Design:
    Data were obtained from the United States Linked Infant Birth and Death Certificate Public User Period files for the years 2005 to 2007. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for postneonatal out-of-hospital death by gestational age were determined by logistic regression modeling.
    Result:
    Over the 3-year period, there were 5203 postneonatal out-of-hospital deaths attributable to SIDS; 2010 attributable to other sudden deaths; 1270 attributable to suffocation in bed; and 3681 attributable to other causes. The adjusted OR for SIDS among the most preterm infants (24 to 28 weeks gestation) was significantly increased compared with term infants, ORadj=2.57 (95%confidence interval=2.08, 3.17), as were the adjusted ORs for the other causes of sudden infant death.
    Conclusion:
    Despite the marked drop in the incidence of SIDS since 1987, the risk for SIDS among preterm infants remains elevated. Other causes of sudden infant death for which SIDS is often mistaken reflect similar levels of increased risk among preterm infants
    .