Strollerderby : shot

Baby Born Healthy After Mother Shot in Side

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:02:00 GMT

Five months after being shot in the side while riding on a motorcycle, Alissa Musser gave birth to a healthy daughter. Musser, 26, was a passenger that day when the motorcycle went by a sporting club outside Pittsburgh, PA. A 47-year-old target shooter's round went astray, traveling a mile to hit Musser in the ribcage.

Although she wasn't seriously injured in the incident, she spent the next five months worrying about her child's health; her worries were put the rest with the birth of seven pound, 11 ounce Scarlett Keagan.

Anyone who's suffered a fall or other worrisome accident while pregnant will have some inkling of her relief. Scarlett's mother says they've already started calling the baby by an appropriate nickname: Lucky.

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Kid Dies After Parents Said No to Hib Vaccine

JeanneSager — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:31:00 GMT

It's a disease entirely preventable, but a sudden burst in diagnoses of Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type B) in Minnesota kids has led to the death of one seven-month-old. His parents, along with those of two other infected children were in the growing group who have opted out on vaccinating their kids.

The fourth child infected was in the middle of the three-part vaccination process, while the fifth had an immune deficiency.

Despite the low number of infections, the CDC has gotten involved, concerned that parents choosing not to vaccinate their kids are putting other children at risk. Five kids, they say, is the highest number of cases in one area since 1992, when vaccinating against Hib became common practice in pediatricians' offices.

"The situation is of concern," Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease at the CDC, told CNN. "It could be happening elsewhere, and of course it's tragic that one of the children actually died from a preventable disease."

Since vaccinating against Hib became the norm for American children in the early 1990s, the CDC has seen a ninety nine percent drop in reported cases (from as much as twenty thousand before vaccinations).The disease primarily strikes kids under five, and it kills one in twenty. Of those who survive, ten to twenty percent end up with brain damage, many more go deaf.

What's troubling to me are the children infected despite their parents proper attempts to vaccinate - because other parents refusal to do so has allowed the disease to once again flourish. It's something very few people in the anti-vaccine community focus on - what happens to everyone else's kids. They argue that they are protecting their children from supposed toxins in the immunizations. But as a recent study proving the efficacy of the meningitis vaccine points out, the "herd immunity" provided by immunizing children protects the community as a whole.

By refusing to immunize their kids, these parents are putting society as a whole at risk - including the fourth and fifth kid in Minnesota, who were at special risks.

Image: CNN

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Eight-Year-Old Charged with Murdering His Father

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:59:00 GMT

An eight-year-old Arizona boy is facing two counts of premeditated murder for the deaths of his father and his father’s friend. Police are investigating whether abuse played a role in the murders, even as they continue with plans to prosecute the child.

Soon after 29-year-old Vincent Romero and 39-year-old Timothy Romans, who was renting a room at the Romero house (pictured), were fatally shot, the boy went to a neighbor’s house and said that he believed his father was dead. Police immediately arrived on the scene, and claim to have gotten a confession from the child. But the boy’s lawyer is charging that officers questioned him too severely without the benefit of a parent or representative at his side. (The boy’s father had full custody, with the mother visiting from out-of-state on the weekends.)

"They became very accusing early on in the interview," attorney Benjamin Brewer said. "Two officers with guns at their side, it's very scary for anybody, for sure an 8-year-old kid."

Although the boy’s home was unknown to Child Protective Services, police had responded to domestic violence calls there in the past. The judge has ordered a psychological evaluation.

Under Arizona law, children as young as eight can be charged with crimes. Even though the town’s police chief understands that an eight-year-old does not “just decide that he’s going to shoot his father and shoot his father’s friend for no reason,” police are pushing to have the boy tried as an adult.

To me, the fact that the boy immediately alerted neighbors of the deaths indicates that he lacked the moral reasoning necessary to understand the emotional complexity and consequences of his acts. No one, no matter how young, should be excused for committing murder, but I will be heartbroken if this boy, well before his mental capacities are fully formed, faces murder charges as an adult.

As a defense attorney uninvolved in the case commented, “[S]ociety has to make a decision as to whether they want to start using the criminal justice system to deal with 8-year-olds. That doesn't mean you don't have a troubled kid."

Photo: AP

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