In prison the parents of a three-month-old baby dead in Sabadell for alleged mistreatment
The creature had lesions compatible with a rough shaking
BarcelonaThe parents of a three-month-old baby who died on Friday in Sabadell have been imprisoned this Sunday for allegedly mistreating 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 severe mistreatment 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 instruction section of the Court of First Instance of Sabadell has ordered provisional, communicated, and bail-free detention for the baby's parents for habitual mistreatment resulting in death. In parallel, the Catalan police have opened an investigation to determine the "possible involvement of the parents in the events".
The baby died 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 conducting a medical examination, the hospital professionals suspected that he had symptoms compatible with shaking and activated the Generalitat's child protection protocols. Two days later, the child passed away.
Health will follow up on the case
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. In this regard, the department has stated that the institutions involved are collaborating with the competent authorities and are acting with "the utmost transparency compatible with the protection of minors, the confidentiality of clinical data, and respect for the ongoing procedure".
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 due force".
While waiting for the investigation to advance and for information to be obtained about possible aggressions to the minor, pediatricians assure that shaking is a more frequent type of abuse than one might think. Many cases occur as a result of an impulsive reaction due to an inability to console persistent crying or manage the care of infants. 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 forward and backward movement of the head – similar to a whiplash – which can cause brain hemorrhages, damage to vital organs, seizures, or apneas. Since the initial symptoms may 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.
