Doctors Call for New Name for “Shaken Baby Syndrome”: Halifax Brain Injury Lawyer Explains
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) wants doctors to stop using the term “shaken baby syndrome”.
Shaken Baby Syndrome is a diagnosis used to describe injury to the brain, skull and the spine of infants who have suffered severe shaking.
The AAP has recommended using the term: “Abusive Head Trauma“. This diagnostic term more accurately reflects the nature of the injuries suffered by infants. The term also more accurately conveys the nature of the injury. Shaking an infant can cause bruising, swelling and bleeding to the brain which, according to the National Institute of Health:
“…can lead to permanent, severe brain damage or death.”
The fact remains that many members of the public do not realize that it is possible to suffer a brain injury without striking your head. That is one of the brain injury “myths” that I dispel in my article “8 Myths of Traumatic Brain Injury”.
