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Glossary of terms
Published in Patricia A. Murphy, A Career and Life Planning Guide for Women Survivors:, 2020
Battered child syndrome: Dr. Henry Kempe organized an multidisciplinary conference in 1961, Battered Child Syndrome. His efforts paved the way for the medical profession’s recognition of the physical abuse of children. Neglect including dehydration, malnourishment, and anemia are the most common signs of child battering, followed by multiple fractures, and cerebrospinal injury. Battered children are withdrawn, terrified, and fail to express emotion.
Accident
Published in Burkhard Madea, Asphyxiation, Suffocation,and Neck Pressure Deaths, 2020
According to the statements of the mother and her friend, the 4-year-old boy who was mentally retarded had slipped in the bathtub and fallen on his head. One hour later he began to lose consciousness so the mother called the emergency doctor who immediately admitted the boy to hospital. Computer tomography of the head showed a large subdural haematoma covering the right hemisphere of the brain, general cerebral oedema and displacement of the right hemisphere. Despite emergency surgical removal of the haematoma, the boy died 3 days later. The autopsy revealed an extensive contusion of the scalp at the left side of the skull, older cutaneous haemorrhages of the right temple, the left cheek and the chin, as well as multiple bruises of different ages widely distributed over the extremities and the trunk including the buttocks, and, furthermore, a fracture of the second finger of the right hand. Neuropathological examination showed residues of a subdural haematoma over the right hemisphere, contusions at the base of the left frontal lobe and severe hypoxic neuronal changes. The pattern of these lethal injuries could only partly be related to a single fall. The multiple bruises and haemorrhages of the face and extremities could not be explained by the parental story. To sum up, the findings indicated a ‘battered child syndrome’ but a causal relationship between the repeated maltreatment and the lethal outcome could not be proved with sufficient certainty.
Child Safeguarding and Social Care
Published in James Matheson, John Patterson, Laura Neilson, Tackling Causes and Consequences of Health Inequalities, 2020
Concepts of child maltreatment have widened greatly in the 50 years since Kempe and colleagues first identified the battered-child syndrome [9]. The World Health Organisation report on violence and health [10] defined child maltreatment as ‘all forms of physical and/or emotional or sexual abuse, deprivation and neglect of children, or commercial or other exploitation resulting in harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.’ In the UK, child protection concerns are usually defined as either physical, sexual or emotional abuse or neglect. In recent years, sexual exploitation, particularly affecting adolescents, and the trafficking of children have emerged as new concerns.
The Eyes Have It: How Critical are Ophthalmic Findings to the Diagnosis of Pediatric Abusive Head Trauma?
Published in Seminars in Ophthalmology, 2023
Cynthia K Harris, Anna M Stagner
In 1946, Dr. John Caffey, a pediatric radiologist, published a landmark article in the field of child abuse that identified an association between fractures in the long bones of infants and subdural hematomas.3 Caffey concluded his article by cautiously raising the possibility of non-accidental trauma perpetrated by caregivers, stating, “The fractures appear to be of traumatic origin but the traumatic episodes and the causal mechanism remain obscure.”3 This conclusion, however noncommittal it may sound to a modern audience, was a seminal moment in the medical community’s awareness of child abuse.4 A far more explicit clinical connection between long bone fractures, subdural hematoma, and caregiver abuse was proposed in 1962 by Dr. C Henry Kempe in his pointedly titled article, “The Battered-Child Syndrome.”5 Subdural hematomas were a frequent finding in the 749 cases of battered-child syndrome; there was, however, no mention of ophthalmic findings.