In prison the parents of a three-month-old baby who died in Sabadell from alleged mistreatment

BarcelonaThe parents of a three-month-old baby who died on Friday in Sabadell have been jailed this Sunday for allegedly abusing him. As the ARA has been able to confirm, the Mossos d'Esquadra arrested the parents and one of the hypotheses now being investigated is that the baby suffered violent shaking, the most frequent form of serious abuse in infants under six months old.

The couple appeared in court this Sunday and only answered some questions from their lawyers. The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has reported that the presiding judge of court 3 of the investigating division of the Sabadell Court of First Instance has ordered provisional, communicated, and no-bail custody for the baby's parents for habitual abuse resulting in death. In parallel, the Catalan police have opened an investigation to determine the "possible link of the parents with the events".

The baby died early on Friday morning at the Parc Taulí Hospital in Sabadell. He had been admitted to the hospital two days earlier, on June 24 – coinciding with the Sant Joan holiday – after emergency medical services (SEM) transferred him from his family home, where they had resuscitated him. The couple, who had recently moved from Zaragoza to Sabadell, called 112 because the child was not breathing, according to the ACN.

After attending to the baby and performing a medical examination, the hospital professionals suspected that he had symptoms compatible with shaking and activated the child protection protocols of the Generalitat. The baby was in the intensive care unit (ICU) and, two days later, died due to a cerebral hemorrhage. He also presented several fractures on his body.

Two "routine" visits to the CAP

The same health sources have also assured that the administration will follow up on the case and that the health inspection will open the necessary official proceedings to verify the functioning of the procedures. The Director General of Health Planning and Regulation, Clara Pareja, explained in statements to the ACN that the baby was first seen at the CAP on May 18 and a second time at the end of May. They were routine visits to the CAP in Sabadell and in neither of them were there "elements that called for attention". Nevertheless, she assured that the department is launching an investigation to review the healthcare the child has received and to check if the established protocols have been followed. Likewise, they also plan to contact Aragon, which is where the child was born. In fact, the family moved to Catalonia two months ago.

The Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat, Albert Dalmau, stated this Sunday on X that this death "deeply moves him" and thanked the work of the SEM and the Mossos d'Esquadra. However, he considered it necessary to respect the judicial investigation and trust that "the facts will be clarified and that action will be taken with all the appropriate forcefulness". In this regard, the ministry stated that the institutions involved are collaborating with the competent authorities and are acting with "maximum transparency compatible with the protection of minors, the confidentiality of clinical data, and respect for the ongoing procedure".

While waiting for the investigation to progress and for information to be obtained about possible abuse of the minor, pediatricians assure that shaking is a type of abuse more frequent than one might think. Many cases occur due to an impulsive reaction to the inability to console persistent crying or manage the care of children. When this happens, shaking can have fatal consequences because excessive force is exerted on an extremely immature body. However, this does not exclude other forms of abuse.

Shaking causes a sudden movement of the head back and forth – similar to a whiplash – which can cause brain hemorrhages, injuries to vital organs, seizures, or apneas. Since the initial symptoms can be subtle, some families do not go to the emergency room until the injuries are severe and, in some cases, it is already too late.