Doctors were seriously concerned that a baby girl may have suffered brain damage, after scans showed that she had suffered bleeds in her brain when she was brought to hospital by her parents in a lethargic and drowsy state, a trial has heard,
Consultant paediatrician, Dr Rosina McGovern said that doctors at Cork University Hospital were extremely concerned when an CAT scan on the child’s brain showed that the five and a half month old little girl had suffered a thrombosis or blood clot between her skull and her brain.
This subdural haemorrhage was evidence of a searing or tearing of tissues connecting the right and left sides of her brain, caused a back and forth acceleration and deceleration and is associated with abusive head trauma, said Dr McGovern.
Dr McGovern was giving evidence on the second day of the trial of a 31 year old man, who can’t be named to protect the identity of his daughter, but who is charged with three offences relating the care of the infant at their family home between November 25th, 2020, and January 4th, 2021.
The man denies causing serious harm to the child on January 4th, 2021, and denies assault causing harm to the child between November 25th and December 15th 2020.
He also denies that he wilfully assaulted or ill-treated the child.
Dr McGovern told the jury of five men and seven women hearing the case at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the child’s parents brought her to Cork University Hospital at 9pm on January 4th following a visit to South Doc, after the child had been vomiting for eight hours.
The child had no history of trauma or falls but presented with a number of different colour bruises on her face, cheek, stomach, abdomen and right buttock as and abrasions on her left temporal area, her cheek and her nose. Her parents offered no explanation for either.
“She was lethargic, and she couldn’t smile or wasn’t vocalising which you would expect in a five month old, and there was concern that she might have suffered some brain dysfunction,” said Dr McGovern. There was also concern over the child’s inability to lie on her belly.
The fact that she only lay on her back and the fact that was using only her right arm was concerning, because young infants do not have one predominant arm, and both aspects of her behaviour again raised concern that she might have suffered some brain injury.
An MRI scan revealed evidence of bruising and a collection of blood in the soft tissue between the epidural membrane, which protects the spinal cord and the bone, and this extended from the infant’s neck down to just above her hips, she said.
She said an X-ray revealed the child had suffered a broken collar bone, which was a very unusual in a five month old as they are not mobile. She also ruled out such an injury resulting from a fall from a table or changing mat, as she had never seen that happen.
She said she believed the child’s injuries constituted serious harm.
Cross-examined by defence counsel, Ray Boland SC, Dr McGovern agreed the child’s condition improved after treatment and she was no longer lethargic after January 8th 2021. She was behaving as a five month old would be expected to behave when discharged from CUH on January 18th.
Earlier the jury heard evidence from staff at the creche which the child was attending and how they noticed a bruise on the child’s left cheek on December 15th 2020. When they raised it with the child’s mother, she brushed it off and said, “That’s a thing of nothing.”
The case continues.
