SBS: AlabamaL Scott Durham arrested

 Wednesday, 23 Nov 2011, Candace Murphy

BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. (WALA) - A 6-month-old infant is on a ventilator after authorities said her father, Scott Durham, bounced her on a bed out of anger. Baldwin County Deputies said the alleged abuse happened November 18 in Foley.
They said Durham admitted to losing his temper due to stress and being tired. He told deputies he aggressively bounced the infant on the bed.
“Once we started the interview process and started to talk with him about it, within just a limited amount of time he ended making a statement and confessing to it,” said Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Mack. “What we find is even though these people assault children, in the back of their mind, they realize that’s not the proper thing to do, and so the guilt does starts to take over, and I think that was the case in this.”
The 6-month-old girl suffered a hemorrhage on the brain and severe retinal hemorrhage. She was air lifted by Life-Flight to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, where she is still in intensive care.
“The nature of the injuries fall in line with what we call shaken baby syndrome, and that’s simply where a child’s head is moved about so violently that it causes an internal injury,” said Mack.
Durham has been charged with first degree domestic violence and is at the Baldwin County Corrections Center under no bond.
Officials said this is the third time Durham has been arrested in the past two years for domestic violence. They want to keep him in jail as long as they can.
“We're hoping not only for the judge to set for a high bond, but we typically ask for conditions [in addition to] bond, such as no contact with the family, can’t return to the residence - those type of things,” said Mack.
Neighbors FOX10 spoke with said the child's mother just got back from being with her daughter in Pensacola. She was too upset to speak with us.

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news/baldwin_county/infant-allegedly-injured-by-father

SIDS: Alabama: Alabama now has a law setting up unexplained infant death investigation teams so that the state can reduce preventable baby deaths

 June 23, 2011,   Birmingham News editorial board

When a bill manages to pass both the Alabama Senate and House without a no vote in either chamber, you know the bill must be one long overdue.
Such is the case with the Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Investigation Act, which got final approval on the last day of the legislative session earlier this month.
The state already has child death review teams that take a look at most child deaths.
This latest bill, sponsored by state Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, and state Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Madison County, focuses on investigating unexplained baby deaths.
Often, when an infant less than a year old dies unexpectantly, the assumption was that most of the deaths were from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. In fact, in some cases, a baby suffocates when sleeping with a larger person, or an infant could even be the victim of abuse, shaken by a parent or a caregiver in anger.
This law mandates training for law-enforcement officers who respond to an infant death scene, so that the information gained can assist a medical examiner in determining an actual cause of death.
The new Unexplained Infant Death Investigation Team will be a subcommittee of the existing Child Death Review Team within the state Department of Public Health.
That is the right home. Among the SUIDI team responsibilities: establish the protocol for investigating infant deaths; develop and maintain training standards and policies involving infant death investigations; approve the standardized reporting form and procedures; and make sure law-enforcement agencies, coroners and deputy coroners are trained in investigations and reporting.
Fortunately, the Alabama team won't have to start from scratch. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has guidelines, reporting forms, training standards and other tools that should help the state group set up a good investigation team.
If state policymakers know the actual reasons for infant deaths, they can propose regulations, laws and public education campaigns that help reduce preventable infant deaths.
The more that is learned about how infants die in the home, the less mysterious it will be. Many states have had similar sudden infant death investigation teams for a while; it's encouraging that Alabama has now joined their ranks.
http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2011/06/our_view_alabama_now_has_a_law.html

SBS: Wrong use of expression SBS

October 26, 2010

The family of injured Montgomery police Cpl. David Brown filed a lawsuit against the city of Montgomery on Tuesday seeking worker’s compensation benefits.
Brown was escorting a funeral Sept. 11 when a driver in the procession pulled out and hit his motorcycle. Afterward, the ambulance carrying him turned over on the way to the hospital.
The lawsuit states that Brown’s duties that day were done “with permission, knowledge and approval of the City of Montgomery Police Department and were performed for the benefit of the department and citizens of Montgomery.”
The city has said Brown was working for the funeral home in an off-duty capacity that day.
Since the accidents, he has undergone numerous operations, including the amputation of his right leg above the knee and his left arm above the elbow.
He had been on a ventilator but began breathing on his own last week. His brother said he was put back on the ventilator Monday after developing a case of pneumonia, but doctors feel it is treatable and he will be back breathing his own soon.
The suit, which was filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court, also states Brown has suffered permanent disability, including “a broken jaw, cracked pallet, shaken baby syndrome, bleeding on the brain and multiple infections in his amputated limbs. He remains in a coma and is on a ventilator as well as dialysis.”The lawsuit states that at the time of the accident Brown was earning $925 per week. The suit seeks “compensation and medical expenses and any other relief to which he is entitled under the workers’ compensation laws of the state of Alabama.”
A letter was sent to the city Sept. 30 asking for a review of its position regarding Brown’s worker’s compensation eligibility. Brown’s brother said that they had not heard back from the city since that time.
Todd Brown said his brother “will have astronomical bills.”
“We are not trying to grab money,” he said. “We just want him to be declared on-duty.”
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20101026/NEWS/101026026/Family+of+injured+police+officer+files+lawsuit+against+city

SIDS & SBS: Alabama Infant Mortality

For the second year in a row, 43 infants died in Mobile County before reaching their first birthday, records show. Twelve of the deaths were sleep-related, compared to 16 in 2008. Sleep-related deaths include suffocation when babies are in a bed with a parent or sibling, as well as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Nationally, statistics indicate that sleep-related death rates have fallen significantly since experts began telling parents to let babies sleep only on their backs. Factors such as sharing beds and a lack of circulating air in a baby’s room have both been shown to contribute to such deaths. Instead of sharing a bed, an infant can simply sleep in the same room as the parents, but in a crib, said Tony Bondora, who investigates infant deaths for the local Health Department. Also, he said, parents must make sure that sitters know not to let babies sleep on their stomachs or sides, even if they are just napping. “We are seeing more and more caregivers that are not following the recommendation. The babysitter doesn’t get the message and suddenly you have a very dangerous situation,” said Bondora, who is also coordinator of the Alabama Baby Coalition. New research suggests a great risk of SIDS for infants who are put to sleep on their stomachs after typically sleeping on their backs. “It appears that some infants are predisposed to lower seratonin levels, and that may be related to SIDS deaths,” Bondora said. In Baldwin County in 2009, there were 19 infant deaths, with 16 recorded the previous year, records show. Statewide, there were 513 infant deaths in Alabama in 2009, which meant the state’s infant mortality rate — the number of babies who died during their first year per 1,000 live births — dropped from 9.5 a year earlier to 8.2, according to records. That 8.2 rate was the lowest since the state began keeping such records more than 100 years ago, but was still among the highest in the country. Some factors related to the statewide drop in deaths last year, health officials said, was that fewer women smoked and fewer teenagers gave birth.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/09/infant_mortality_rate_drops_in.html