Child Dies 12 Years After Suffering Shaken-Baby Syndrome

0
433

Authorities said 12-year-old Aiden Stein died earlier this week after living out his life as a victim of shaken-baby syndrome.

Aiden, whose father was convicted in the 2004 incident, had been in a vegetative state since he was shaken at 4 months old – unable to hear, unable to see, unable to move around on his own. He died Sunday at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, according to the Mansfield News Journal.

“He must have had the strongest heart on the planet because he fought through so much,” Richland County Prosecutor Bambi Couch Page told the newspaper.

When Aiden’s mother left him with his father March 15, 2004, he was all grins, the Columbus Dispatch reported at the time, citing court documents.

Soon after, his father said, he started to fuss.

His father, Matthew Stein, then 21, told police he put Aiden in his crib with a bottle and left the room, the newspaper reported, citing the court documents. When he returned, he said, the infant was unconscious.

Aiden was taken to a hospital in Mansfield, not far from Columbus, and was later flown to Akron Children’s hospital, according to court documents.

Doctors determined Aiden had a fractured skull and a traumatic brain injury consistent with shaken-baby syndrome, according to the documents.

Aiden’s case made national headlines.

His father, who was the only one at home with him at the time, was immediately suspected of child abuse but contended that his son had choked while drinking milk, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported then.

The next month, Stein was indicted by a grand jury for felonious assault and child endangerment, according to court documents, but prosecutors waited to try the case to see whether Aiden would live or die.

Had Aiden died, his father could have faced an additional charge – murder.

Aiden_Stein_0_34687163_ver1.0_640_480

In fact, many felt that was Stein’s motivation for keeping his son alive, fighting to try to keep his son on life support.

Stein’s attorney at the time, Mark Zaller, told the Columbus Dispatch that his client believed “miracles can happen.”

“The father would love to see the child survive and live,” he said, according to the newspaper. “He completely denies having any involvement in this. They have seen significant improvement in their minds.

“The child is moving a lot more.”

After Aiden’s death earlier this week, Page, the prosecutor in the case, told the Associated Press that it was “unlikely” she was pursue further charges.

“I would have to look at the reason [Aiden] died,” she told the news agency. “But there would probably be a stretch in jurors’ minds that he died as a result of what the dad did.”

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that it was still unclear whether an official cause of death had been determined.

Early on, experts said Aiden was brain dead, except for his brain stem, and would remain in a vegetative state his entire life, prompting a court-appointed guardian to recommend that Aiden be removed from life support.

“Because Stein was under suspicion of causing Aiden’s injuries, and because Heimlich remained allied with Stein after the alleged abuse, the [Children’s Hospital Ethics Committee] recommended that due to the significant potential for a conflict of interest, a guardian should be appointed to help make medical decisions for Aiden,” according to 2004 court documents.

“In addition, the ethics committee recommended that life-supporting treatment be withdrawn and comfort care be administered to Aiden.”

Stein and the child’s mother, Arica Heimlich, fought the recommendation all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court – arguing it would violate their parental rights.

The state Supreme Court ruled that the parents have the right to make a determination about a child’s life-saving treatment, according to Cleveland.com. Stein and Heimlich later agreed to give custody to Stein’s mother.

In September 2005, Stein was convicted and sentenced to the maximum sentence of eight years in prison, according to court documents.

“You destroyed the potential that baby Aiden had,” Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWasse told him at the time, according to the Mansfield News Journal. “What could Aiden have achieved? How many years did you take away from Aiden? How many years do you deserve for the years you took away from him.”

Stein served his sentence and was released from prison in 2013.

He has maintained his innocence.

“I one day hope to God to prove that,” he said, according to Cleveland.com.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Lindsey Bever

Facebook Comments