Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Prevalent Danger

Most people think SBS only happens in isolated cases. Some US studies estimate that 15 percent of children's deaths are due to battering or shaking, and an additional 15 percent are possible cases of shaking.

Towards the end of the 1990s, two high profile court cases focused the world's attention on SBS. In 1997, British au pair, Louise Woodward, was found guilty of culpable homicide after she literally shook an American baby in her care, Matthew Eappen, to death. A second highly-publicized case happened in England in January 1999—an Australian au pair, Louise Sullivan, admitted to shaking a six-month old baby girl so severely that the baby died of serious head injuries.