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The Maine Monitor: Child homicides are the tip of Maine’s ‘iceberg of abuse’

By September 26, 2021January 30th, 2023News

This article was published by The Maine Monitor. View the article online through the link below or read a snippet copied from the article, below.

Child homicides are the tip of Maine’s ‘iceberg of abuse’

Child homicides are the tip of Maine’s ‘iceberg of abuse’

The damage to babies and children in the state is causing mild learning disabilities, damaging neurological conditions … and deaths.

The infants arrive at the hospital with broken legs and arms.

Sometimes their ribs are fractured.

Others undergo CT scans and tests that show bleeding in their brain and behind their eyes – telltale signs that the babies have been violently shaken.

Dr. Amanda Brownell, Maine’s sole pediatric child abuse expert, examines each of her patients carefully to determine whether the bruises, broken bones or brain damage are the result of an accident, illness or abuse.

Over the past few months, Brownell evaluated three babies who were shaken and suffered brain damage. “Fatalities are unfortunately the tip of the tragic iceberg of abuse in this state,” she said.