Two women from the county, mother and daughter, ended up being sent to court by the prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Dorohoi Court for manslaughter, after being the protagonists of an incident rarely seen with a baby.
The story is hallucinatory all the more because the incident had a tragic outcome, a little girl aged only 6 months dying in their arms. The case has now reached the courts, and until a final sentence is handed down, the two women, Veronia L. and Elena B., will benefit from the presumption of innocence.
Everything happened about three years ago, more precisely in February 2021, in Dimăcheni commune. The baby’s mother, 24 years old, had been living with her partner for two months, in his house. Due to marital misunderstandings, the young woman wanted to leave the house, together with the child. Except that the young woman’s mother objected, and a conflict took place between the two. In this context, the two women pulled and jerked the child, each from the other’s arms, several times. And not gently, but with the force that everyone was capable of. What the women didn’t realize was that their sudden actions caused the child to develop a subdural hematoma, which resulted in death.
Baby kept at home even though he was feeling sick
The scandal took place on February 13, and since then the little girl fell into a kind of coma, but neither the mother nor the grandmother took her to the hospital. They believed she would recover, even though the little girl was losing weight and seemed to have difficulty breathing from day to day. Without making any connection, the young woman thought she could pass them a baby syrup.
On February 16, 2021, however, the young mother woke up and noticed that the little girl was no longer breathing. He immediately called 112, and an ambulance arrived at the scene. Unfortunately, however, the medical staff could only confirm the death of the little one.
As the child’s death was unnatural, the girl not having serious chronic conditions, the case was taken over by the police, who requested an autopsy. The result of the forensic doctors was a shocking one – the girl died from a subdural hematoma. As such injuries occur after strong shocks, it was initially thought that it was from rocking. Especially since there were no other signs of violence on the little girl’s body. For a while, investigators thought it might be the so-called shaken baby syndrome. This is because when a baby is rocked too hard or suddenly, the brain hits the inside of the cranial box and injuries occur at its level, which in time can cause sequelae or even death. The case remained in the attention of the prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Dorohoi Court, where a case for manslaughter was registered.
An unprecedented case
The conclusions of the forensic doctors were clear – the death was violent and was caused by a bilateral subdural hemorrhage. It’s just that a supplemental examination was requested, and the medical examiners determined that the shock or shocks that led to the formation of that hematoma required more force than a rocking.
Then the investigators insisted on finding out from the two women what happened a few days before the death. Only then did one of them mention the incident on February 13, and that’s how the violent incident came to light. Later, the police and prosecutors collected evidence after evidence, questioned the two women, and at the beginning of this year the case was sent to court, the women being accused of manslaughter.
The case is unprecedented in modern history, but it remains to be seen whether or not the two women will plead guilty to the charges brought against them. Therefore, until a final sentence is pronounced, they will benefit from the presumption of innocence.
In children under one year old, the brain is not sufficiently developed, and a sudden movement for the infant, even a violent rocking, can have the same effect as the impact suffered by an adult during a car accident. Moreover, cerebral vessels can break easily and hemorrhage occurs. This would also have happened in the case of the girl from Botoşani, the doctors believe. Statistics show that in 25-30% of cases where the baby’s brain is affected by sudden movements, death occurs suddenly. And children who survive can be left with lifelong sequelae – paralysis, retardation or even blindness.
