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Expecting Mothers
Learn Of The Delicacy Of Babies
Father Takes On DUI Law
Couple In Jail After Child Is Hurt
Expecting mothers learn
the delicacies of babies
By BOB WITHERS
- The Herald-Dispatch
Printed January 22, 2004
ONA -- One student tries to trace the lines of a star while
looking in a mirror; her hand won’t go where she wants it to.
Another girl leads a blindfolded colleague, who trips over a
highchair. Still another tries to write legibly with a vibrating
pen.
Several of the Cabell Midland High School students in attendance
-- all of whom are mothers or expectant mothers -- are learning in a
graphic way what can happen to their infants if they are shaken
vigorously. And they’re paying close attention.
Peggy Brown, executive director of the Brain Injury Association
of West Virginia Inc., explained the causes, symptoms and results of
Shaken Baby Syndrome to the members of Cabell Midland’s adolescent
parenting class in the school’s child care center on Wednesday.
"If more teenagers would learn about Shaken Baby Syndrome, the
reality of the disabilities and possible deaths of their babies,
they would be more aware while caring for their children," Brown
said.
The teaching found receptive listeners."It made me nervous," said
senior Melissa Bachert, 18, who’s expecting in April. "I learned a
lot."And so did other students."SBS really hurts them," said senior
Kim Scarberry, also 18, who has a 2-year-old and a 5-month-old. And
anybody can do it -- it doesn’t matter if they’re male or female."So
she’s going to be more careful."If someone injures my child and says
they were just playing, I’m going to be skeptical," she said. "I’m
not going to believe it."
Brown said vigorously shaking a baby can cause its brain to
bounce around inside the skull, with jagged ridges of bone tearing
into brain tissue and causing hemorrhages. SBS, which is the leading
cause of infant morbidity and mortality, can cause everything from
extreme irritability, limp arms and legs and semiconsciousness to
blindness, seizures and physical or learning disabilities -- in
those who survive.And it is usually caused by a parent or caregiver
who shakes the baby out of frustration because it doesn’t stop
crying.
"These are teen mothers," says Ann B. Thornburg, the school’s
child care director. "They become so frustrated because, in a sense,
they’re still children themselves. They’re trying to go to school,
they’re working, they’re dealing with all these adult problems. I
want them to know that it’s OK to get frustrated, but I also want
them to know where they can get help."
Permission by Herald Dispatch
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Father takes on DUI
law
Drunken
driving accident kills son of Martinsburg man
By George Gannon -
Daily Mail staff
Friday January 16, 2004; 12:00 PM
On Steven Cheeseman’s death certificate, in the box marked cause
of death, is the phrase "multiple blunt trauma."
The 20-year-old Marshall University student wasn’t beaten to
death. He was killed by a drunken driver.
On April 23, 2002, Steven and a friend were driving to a Burger
King near his Martinsburg home when a drunken driver swerved across
the yellow line and slammed into the vehicle he was riding in. The
restaurant was 2 miles from his house.
When his father, Mark Cheeseman, arrived at the hospital, the
doctor who treated Steven in the emergency room told him seeing his
son wouldn’t be worth the pain.
"When the doctor told me that my son did not survive the crash,
he put his hand on my knee and he told me, ‘It’s your right for me
to take you to see your son, but as another human, I recommend you
remember him as he was because the damage was so intense,’ "
Cheeseman recalled.
That was April. Cheeseman doesn’t remember another thing until
June.
It’s that pain that has Cheeseman fighting to strengthen West
Virginia’s drunken driving laws. During Wednesday’s State of the
State address, he was recognized for his efforts with the Berkeley
County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
However, his efforts won’t stop in the Eastern Panhandle. He
plans to lobby the Legislature this year in support of Gov. Bob
Wise’s proposal to lower the state’s blood-alcohol content for
drunken driving from 0.10 to 0.08.
But no matter how much time Cheeseman devotes to his consulting
company or his crusade to make the state aware of the devastation a
drunken driver can cause, he can’t escape the fact that Steven is
gone.
Nothing will ease his loss, but Cheeseman is trying to make it so
other parents don’t have to know what it’s like to sit down for
Easter dinner with an empty place at the table, put up one less
Christmas stocking on the fireplace or console a wife who spent the
five-hour trip from Martinsburg to Charleston crying because her
strong, handsome son was dead.
No, the wound left by Steven’s death still is raw.
"The holidays were terrible," Cheeseman said, noting that
Steven’s birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year.
The first Christmas after Steven died, Cheeseman said his wife
was getting out holiday decorations. She opened a box and saw three
stockings, one for each of their children.
"She looked at me and said, ‘Do I hang three or do I hang two?’ I
paused for a second then she said, ‘No, we’re not going to hang
any,’ " Cheeseman said.
Steven’s death was heartbreaking for a number of reasons, the
least of which was that Cheeseman lost the opportunity to share his
son’s outlook on life.
"He was a free spirit," Cheeseman said. "He was the kind of guy
that if his mom and I left for the weekend, he would get his brother
and sister to help clean the house to surprise us when we got back."
A music fan, Steven was majoring in music and audiovisual
engineering. Just before the wreck, he had been in Philadelphia
interviewing for a summer job with a recording studio.
Although he loved rock ‘n’ roll, especially the band Green Day,
Cheeseman said his son was starting to gain an appreciation for
different types of music.
The Christmas before he died, the Cheeseman family saw a
production of "The Nutcracker." While that was probably the last
thing a college guy wanted to do, Cheeseman said once they arrived
at the performance, Steven made a comment that really showed his old
man his son was growing up and becoming a little more mature.
He told his dad the person playing first violin probably
practiced just as much as he did on his guitar.
Steven also was developing a business sense about the industry.
Although he dreamed of producing records with searing guitar riffs
and speaker-rattling bass, Steven was starting to realize that if a
classical musician or someone humming a sad country tune wanted to
record at his studio, that was money he’d be foolish to turn away.
His dad is going to use some of that same logic to appeal to
lawmakers.
Citing a study by the National Highway Transportation Safety
Commission, Cheeseman said the drunken driving accidents drain an
estimated $1 billion a year from the state’s economy.
Although some of the monetary losses are apparent, others are
not.
Since Steven’s death, Cheeseman said one of his cousins is so
distraught she’s not capable of holding down a job. She lives off
government assistance and goes to state-funded grief counseling.
The man who was driving the car Steven was riding in is
permanently disabled and receives government assistance.
The woman driving the other car, Stacy Ronevich, is serving a 1-
to 10-year sentence at Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County.
"It’s the intangibles that people don’t realize," he said.
Thursday, Cheeseman received some tangible results concerning his
efforts.
Less than 24 hours after Wise introduced Cheeseman along with the
bill that would lower the legal blood-alcohol limit, the bill passed
through the Senate’s Judiciary Committee. The full Senate passed
bill earlier today on a vote of 32-0, according to The Associated
Press.
It now will have to move through the House Judiciary Committee.
Reporter Kris Wise contributed to this story.
Writer George Gannon can be reached at 348-4843.
Permission given by Charleston Daily Mail
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Experts discuss injuries
Couple remains in jail after child is hurt
Saturday January 10, 2004;
09:42 AM
By Therese Smith Cox
-
Daily Mail Health Reporter
Though perpetrators may try to
disguise injuries a baby sustains from being shaken, both the short-
and long-term consequences are serious and, sometimes, deadly.
This week, Charleston Police charged
city resident Calvin Linsburg Ray III with felony abuse and child
neglect, accusing him of beating his 2-year-old stepdaughter and
blaming her injuries on his 3-year-old stepson.
His wife, Crystal Lee Ray, also was
arrested on felony child neglect charges. Both remained in South
Central Regional Jail this morning.
Charleston Area Medical Center was
not releasing the little girl's condition today, saying her
relatives had requested that no information should be given out.
According to a criminal complaint
filed Thursday in Kanawha County Magistrate Court, police say the
girl suffered head trauma, and also had insect bites and bruises on
her back and face.
West Virginia MetroNews quoted a
relative of the toddler as saying she didn't believe the original
story that the 3-year-old boy had kicked his sister in the face and
knocked her head into a wall.
"She's got over 20 head injuries.
She's bleeding internally, and her brain is swelling," said the
woman, who spoke to MetroNews on the condition she not be named. "It
had to be done by an adult. There was only three people there when
it happened; the 3-year-old, an 8-month-old and the stepfather."
In this country, between 750 and
3,750 babies are injured from what's called shaken baby syndrome,
said Peggy Brown, executive director of the Brain Injury Association
of West Virginia.
When a caregiver vigorously shakes a
baby by the arms, legs, chest or shoulders, the jerky movements can
harm sensitive blood vessels and other tissues and organs.
In addition to death, long-term
consequences can include partial or total blindness, hearing
impairment, cerebral palsy, learning and physical disabilities,
behavioral disorders, seizures and speech disabilities, Brown said.
Past medical reports show that the
average age of victims is between three and eight months of age.
And it's usually men who do it out of
frustration toward a crying baby who can't be consoled. And male
babies tend to be shaken more than female babies.
But most babies normally cry between
two to three hours a day. And some exceed that. That's their way of
communicating, Brown said.
"It's seldom the mother but usually
the father, babysitter or mother's boyfriend," she said.
Sometimes the baby calms down upon
shaking because the extreme movements damage the brain. So a
caregiver might assume the shaking was successful in quieting the
baby. So it's done again and then again.
Brown said family members and health
care givers could diagnose shaken baby syndrome by looking at the
baby's eyes, which could have retinal bleeding.
"Many of the other symptoms mimic
meningitis," she said.
If the child survives -- and about
one-third do not -- then he or she most likely will need speech,
occupational, cognitive and/or physical therapy to deal with the
injuries.
Brown's organization works with
schools and organizations to help young mothers understand the
dangers of the syndrome and prevent it from happening.
"It can happen in any home
whatsoever," she said.
Writer Therese Smith may be reached
at 348-4874.
Permission granted by Therese Smith
at the Charleston Daily Mail
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