no signs of trauma whatsoever except for her skull. The pathologist does not even mention anything about anything else like her heart, lungs, abdominal cavity or her muscles!”
“Right,” agreed the Canadian guy. “And one cannot determine for sure by just an autopsy -no matter how much blood it shows inside the skull- whether the bump that caused her acute subdural was inflicted by her slipping from his hands up in the air while cleaning her, and falling hard on the floor, OR whether, enraged, he tossed her against something hard as the initial charge of murder had presumed. This has to be answered in favor of the first of those two possibilities, that is, that the child simply ‘slipped off.’ First, because of the doctor’s gentle and kind disposition never having hurt anyone or anything, and not having had prior complaints against him as assured by his staff and the hospital’s; and second, by the absence of body or limb bruises or fractures.”
“Why couldn’t Dr. Lennox have been cleared of wrong doing completely” asked Nora Phillips.
“Because there was too much, a lot of hard evidence against him -all that blood- that would have moved jurors easily towards a harsh conviction” said judge Good; “then there were the opinion of the attending physician in the ER, of the pediatrician supposedly an expert in SBS, so hard and adamant against Dr. Lennox, plus the report of the pathologist… What do you think, Dr. Newman? YOU are a neurosurgeon and deal with fresh red blood more than anybody else in this group and more than most physicians.”
“All I can say is that indeed there was a massive acute subdural hematoma caused by some sort of a hard impact; a large accumulation of blood between the meninges and the brain, not directly touching the skull.” He said. ‘But I can’t say how the impact happened just from these photos and from the autopsy report no matter what the pathologist says. Actually, I can advance with confidence that such hematoma did not grow so big too quickly, but only over several hours, perhaps over 8-10 hours, especially knowing that when Dr. Lennox went to work in the morning, his daughter was breathing normally, was not vomiting and her soft spot -her ‘anterior fontanelle’- was not bulging or tense as he said. Only by mid morning when she first vomited and was taken to the ER her intracranial pressure was beginning to build up.”
“That is interesting,” Dr. Elan, the Canadian child neurologist broke in. “Because if she was beginning to show signs of distress when both parents rushed her to the ER, the ER doctor who sent her for full body X-Rays and a CT scan of her head, wasted very valuable time, at least two hours, and she was indeed dead by the time they brought her from the X-Ray Department back to the pediatric ER…” Then he addressed himself to the neurosurgeon of the group: “Dr. Newman, couldn’t they, or a neurosurgical resident as soon as they saw her, have tapped her subdural space right there in the E.R. instead of sending her for X-Rays, CT scan, etc.?”
“Yes,” Dr. Newman said. “They obviously were in a great hurry to prove the father guilty of abuse or murder – as in suspected SBS, where so often pediatricians are in a big crusade against a parent. In doing so, they may forget to help the kid first and ASAP. Had they thought of the immediate danger the child was in, they could easily have tapped her on one corner of her fontanelle, as it was by then bulging and tense. They could have done it with any regular IV needle to confirm their diagnostic suspicion and THAT could have saved her life right then and there!”
“Roger”, then commented Dr. Phillips, herself also a child Neurologist, “that means that, had the ER exercised proper judgment and speedy action, the little girl might still be alive today regardless of what her father’s other charges of negligence -for not having taken her to the ER earlier- may have ended up with.”
“Yes,” said again the neurosurgeon. “In fact she was not REALLY killed by the impact or fall that happened at home some eight hours earlier in the presence of her father, but by the Hospital, by its ER doctors! They are the ones who exercised bad judgment and carelessness with their delay. Not her father who did not take her to the hospital immediately, at dawn, or before going to his office; she was stable through the night and early morning and her fontanelle was for hours soft!” Then he added, “His was a reasonable judgment call. Theirs killed her.”
“Along the same lines, Roger,” added Dr. Elan, “I have heard another neurosurgeon mention how you don’t need a very hard impact to cause such bleed; that his own 5 month old boy, sitting at a play-pen, happened to fall back against the stiletto of one of his wife’s shoes which gave him also a good bump and a similar hematoma inside the skull! And I can add of myself that when we were building a high deck in the back of our second story, before we had finished the railing, our 2 year old boy fell down a good 10 feet. I checked him out myself -that was also MY judgment call-, I did keep a close eye on him for the next several hours as here Dr. Lennox did, and we did not take him to the ER. I did not consider myself then guilty of negligence, perhaps just a bit too self confident!…”
There was a long pause with disbelief in those in the group.
“Wow” said the judge. ”It seems to me now that the best course of action is for me to sit down with the D.A. and bring all this to his attention. Perhaps we can work out some changes to the verdict and sentence…” He did not tell his friends that he was recording the whole friendly and enlightening exchange. He had been looking for some sort of exculpatory conclusion along these lines when he had arranged the gathering of five friends, though not quite a flip-flop of whose was the guilt.
“But Kenneth,” added his wife Barbara, an MD and a specialist in trauma herself reading his mind, “wouldn’t THIS mean that ‘the culpa’ changes dramatically from Dr. Lennox -the convicted, the guilty one now- to his accusers, the Hospital ER staff? So Tony should go free immediately and may even have basis to sue them, not just for slander but also for medical malpractice, negligence and wrongful death?”
“Well… yes… This dramatically changes things,” said the judge. “But it makes things very complicated legally and for sure there will be a need for a REAL trial OR trials if the D.A. does not buy this. The poor girl’s medical course probably will also have defenders and accusers on both sides… And Tony may need a new lawyer…”
“Will you be able to get the doctor out of jail soon without bringing the case back to court?” Asked Dr. Phillips.
“Yes. I am pretty sure that THAT will be the easiest part. I will have to bring all this to the attention of the DA to arrange an immediate release of the doctor since there is at least now a strong ground for ‘sufficient doubt’ of guilt; so we throw out the existing conviction. Perhaps the DA, even if shocked and unwilling, will give a limited Press release explaining to reporters that fresh new evidence, not available initially, sheds enough light to put the doctor’s guilt in doubt for now. The doctor’s lawyer will have to be present of course and then go to get his client out. “
“So, will Dr. Lennox have now a case against the hospital ER?” asked Barbara.
“He will definitely have a case against them. But HE will have to think it all first and then hire probably more aggressive, personal injury lawyers. His case against the hospital may be a long road, as I am sure, with their own doctors and defense-liability lawyers, contesting it vigorously. Then his lawyers will also have to pursue a case against the DA and the State for a wrong conviction and incarceration.”
The friendly gathering had indeed been more than interesting. It turned out an eye opener. Those around the table in the backyard were noted, observing one another, to fluctuate between attentional tightening of their facial muscles, and repositioning themselves in their seats with nearly catatonic stares, every so often taking big gulps of their drinks.
7
When Kenneth Good and his wife Barbara were alone at home that evening he told her that he had recorded the whole session. She was surprised but did not object or show any displeasure. In fact she was glad her husband had thought of it, and done it secretly, instead of openly, or with a stenographer in attendance as in his court. Their friends might have had some reservations had they known, or at least they might not have been ‘that spontaneous’ with their comments.
“But you are not going to play