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Conjoined twin sisters: Trishna able to speak as Krishna still in coma

Trishna and Krishna, the Bangladeshi conjoined twin sisters separated this week, are both doing well, though Trishna is awake and acting normally, in fact, “phenomenally good” the head of the surgery team said.

Wirginia Maixner, director of neurosurgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne said Trishna is already doing well enough that she could leave intensive care. “She looks brilliant, she is talking, she is being Trishna, she is behaving the way she always has,” Maixner said.

Her sister, Krishna, will be slowly brought out of the coma later Thursday.

Krishna will have a longer period of adjustment as the separation brought more changes to her body and brain’s blood circulation.

MRI scans Wednesday showed no signs of brain injury. Maixner said they hoped to have an indication Thursday night or early Friday about how Krishna’s brain was responding.

The twins, who turn 3 next month, had been joined at the top of their heads and shared brain tissue and blood vessels. They were separated Tuesday after 25 hours of delicate surgery, and then underwent an additional six hours of reconstructive work.

An aid worker first saw Trishna and Krishna in a Bangladeshi orphanage in 2007 when they were only a month old, and arranged for them to be brought to Australia.

         

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“Shaken-Baby” Trial Begins

Anne-Marie Rooney has gone to trial, accused of shaking her 8-month-old baby to death.

Anne-Marie Rooney, 28, is denying all charges that she caused the death of her baby Joe. Rooney is a member of the traveling community and at the time of the incident, back in July 2007, she was staying at a farm in St Merryn, Cornwall.

According to prosecutors in the trial, baby Joe suffered serious head, eye and neck injuries after being shaken. He later died in the hospital. It is alleged that Rooney carried the injured baby into a neighbor’s caravan and asked her to “fix it.”

Rooney is claiming that the baby fell 32 in (81cm) from the bed to the floor and when she went to go pick him up he was red in the face and was crying. She said that she then shook him and he became “white and floppy” so she shook him gently again.

However, doctors for the prosecutor say that they found classic “shaken-baby” injuries, which included a brain injury that was several weeks old. There were no proven congenital disorders that would cause the injuries that the baby had.

The trial is set to continue the rest of the week.

         

Shaken Baby Syndrome Cases Double With Downfall In Economy

Shaken baby syndrome cases have doubled in some parts of the States over the last few months according to specialists.

It is believed that factors, such as the credit crunch, and unemployment levels are increasing family stress and incidents of child abuse.

The syndrome often occurs as a result of an adult violently shakes a baby. Often the carer has been driven over the edge when they are unable to stop their child crying. Young infants are unable to hold their head steady as their neck muscles are not fully developed.

It is estimated that one in four babies die if they develop the syndrome. The other victims are often left with neurological defects as their brains are unable to recover the trauma.

Child protection organisations are calling for better public education on the potentially devastating brain injury.

Executive director, Suzin Bartley, of Massachusetts Children‘s Trust Fund, which runs programs to highlight the dangers of shaking babies said “This is a tragedy that we need to pay attention to, especially during these really difficult, stressful economic times,”

“You never know what the level of frustration is in an individual family that may be contributing to them feeling totally overwhelmed,” she said. “And an inconsolable, incessantly crying baby can send you right over the edge. And if you’ve got other young children, and you’re working odd hours trying to keep a family together, and you don’t understand that sometimes babies just cry, then you can be more vulnerable to shaking as a reaction.”

More public education is required as it is hard to predict which babies are most at risk. Many of the cases involve families which do not have a past record of abuse or neglect.

         

Brain Injury Baby Awarded $4.4 Million

Parents of a baby who died 5 years after suffering from a brain injury during her birth in 2003 have been awarded $4.4 million.

Baby Sierra Wilson was born on November 18, 2003 in Piedmont Medical Center, South Carolina. The parents claimed that their daughter was born with brain damage and had later developed cerebral palsy due to a lack of oxygen.

Court documents revealed that a nurse at the birth had not recognised the signs of fetal distress which had required emergency intervention.

Both the hospital and staff were named as being responsible for the childs injuries in the medical malpractice lawsuit.