• Home

  • Search
  • Send Comments
  • What's New
  • Hottest 25
      Legends
  • Odd News
  • Glossary
  • FAQ
  • Donations
  • Autos
  • Business
  • Cokelore
  • College
  • Computers
  • Crime
  • Critter Country
  • Disney
  • Embarrassments
  • Food
  • Glurge Gallery
  • History
  • Holidays
  • Horrors
  • Humor
  • Inboxer Rebellion
  • Language
  • Legal
  • Lost Legends
  • Love
  • Luck
  • Old Wives' Tales
  • Media Matters
  • Medical
  • Military
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Photo Gallery
  • Politics
  • Pregnancy
  • Quotes
  • Racial Rumors
  • Radio & TV
  • Religion
  • Risqué Business
  • Science
  • September 11
  • Sports
  • Titanic
  • Toxin du jour
  • Travel
  • Weddings
  • Message Archive
 
Home --> Inboxer Rebellion --> Medical Appeals --> Never Shake a Baby

Never Shake a Baby

Claim:   E-mail memorializes the shaken baby death of 3-month-old London Marie Sherwood.

Status:   True.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, December 2007]

"Never Shake A Baby!

December 4th, 2007, Jessica Sherwood had to do something no mother should ever have to do.

At 2:29 pm Jessica made a very tough, but the right decision to take her little 3 month old daughter off life support.

In memory of little London Marie, i thought id start a little forward..
Jessica had a message that i want every one to know..

This is what jessica said:
IF NE ONE HAS KIDS MAKE SURE U KEEP THEM WIT U THE WHOLE TIME DNT GIVE THEM TO NE ONE THAT U DNT TRUST..... TRUST ME I THOUGHT I TRUSTED JOSH..... BUT NOW AS OF 12-4-07 AT 2:29AM SHE IS GONE.... MY ONE AND ONLY BABY....... AND HE IS GUNNA PAY FOR EVER EVEN IF HE GETS OUTTA JAIL SCOTT FREE HE WILL BE DEAD NO MATTER WAT......... TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND THAT KNO
LONDON I AM VERY ANGRY AND UPSET I LOST THE LOVE OF MY LIFE MY BABY GIRL.... SHE DIED ON HER 3MONTH BDAY........

SHE HAD 6 FRACTURED RIBS..... BOTH OF HER LEGS WERE FRACTURED.... AND HER BRAIN WAS SO DAMANAGED THAT IF SHE WERE TO LIVE SHE WOULD BE A VEGETABLE.... SO I DID WAT WAS RIGHT AND BEST FOR HER AND TOOK HER OFF LIFE SUPPORT...

THATS WAT U CALL SHAKEN BABY SYNDROM REMEMBER THAT...

For those of you who dont know what Shaken Baby Syndrome is..read this

Shaking, jerking and jolting can cause blood vessels in the head to tear or burst.

Shaken Baby Syndrome is the shaking of an infant or child by the arms, legs, or shoulders with or without impact of the head. This trauma can result in bleeding and brain injury with no outward signs of abuse.

Often frustrated caregivers feel that shaking a baby or small child is a harmless way to make the child stop crying. However, a baby's brain and blood vessels are vulnerable to whiplash motions, such as shaking, jerking, jolting, and impact. The neck muscles of an infant or small child are weak, so the child's head is relatively heavy and the neck cannot support the stress of shaking or impact.

Shaking a very young child, with or without impact of the head, can cause irreversible brain damage, blindness, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, spinal cord injury, seizures, learning disabilities, and even death. It is tragic that healthy, intelligent babies are suffering these disabilities simply because their caregivers don't know about the dangers associated with Shaken Baby Syndrome.

An estimated 1,200 to 1,400 cases of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) occur each year in the United States. Only 1 out of 4 babies dies of Shaken Baby Syndrome. HOWEVER, the other three babies will need ongoing medical attention for the rest of their short lifespans

Rest in Peace London Marie Sherwood
September 4th, 2007-December 4th, 2007

Origins:   According to news accounts, in mid-November 2007, the mother of three-month-old London Marie Sherwood left the infant in the care of 22-year-old Joshua Alan Schaak of Star Prairie, Wisconsin, after a DNA test established that he was the child's father:
London's mother left the girl with Schaak, after paternity tests proved he was the father, and never came back. Schaak lived in a Star Prairie farmhouse with his father, his father's girlfriend and her two sons, but the family made clear the baby was Schaak's responsibility, not theirs

Although she was in a home with five other people, only one of them held and fed her. The little girl had not been taken out of her bedroom — where she slept on the same mattress with her father — at all during the last week of her life. Baby London's last days were spent on an unkempt mattress, often alone.
Three weeks later, on 2 December 2007, paramedics were called to Schaak's home to treat the baby girl, whom he claimed had bumped her head in the bathtub and then had stopped breathing. Baby London was taken to the hospital with a serious head injury, a bleeding eye and possible rib fractures. Unfortunately, her injuries were too severe for her to survive, and two days later she died after being taken off of life support. The county medical examiner declared her death to be a homicide resulting from child abuse:
Ramsey County Medical Examiner Dr. Michael McGee said an autopsy revealed scattered soft tissue bruises to the face and neck, eye-bleeding and evidence of closed head trauma including hemorrhages. She also had multiple healing rib fractures.

Dr. McGee ruled the cause of death as child abuse and the manner of death homicide.
When county investigators re-interviewed Joshua Schaak the day after the infant's death, he "stated that he had become frustrated, shaken the baby and then forcefully directed her to the bed where she struck her head on the wall." The county District Attorney's office has filed a felony charge of second-degree reckless homicide against Schaak, who is currently being held in the St. Croix County Jail. (However, investigators have said is still unclear whether London actually suffered all of her injuries while in Schaak's care.)

Last updated:   10 December 2007

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/medical/sherwood.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2008 by snopes.com.
This material may not be reproduced without permission.
snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.
 
  Sources Sources:
    Brewer, John.   "Star Prairie Man Accused of Killing His Infant Daughter."
    [Saint Paul] Pioneer Press.   7 December 2007.

    Brewer, John.   "Father Charged in Baby's Death."
    [Saint Paul] Pioneer Press.   7 December 2007.

    New Richmond News.   "Star Prairie Man Charged in Baby's Death."
    7 December 2007.