Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 27, 1993 TAG: 9311290154
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE TENNANT LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long
She turned to the family day-care operator who had just handed her the limp infant: "Call 911!" She shouted to a woman next door: "Call 911!"
And she called to God. Please, please save my baby.
Melinda had been shaken so hard she had hemorrhaging in the brain and behind the eyes, doctors said later that night.
Shortly after Griggs found out what had caused her daughter's injuries, she learned another hard lesson: Despite improvements that took effect this year, Virginia's day-care regulations still are too lax to minimize the risk of someone else's child being abused.
So, for her own child and for others, Griggs is launching a campaign to revamp the state's day-care laws.
"It's terrible that our children can't be safe anymore," Griggs said this week, cradling Melinda in her arms. "The laws have tied the hands of the social workers. It's going to be up to us to change these laws. Children don't have rights anymore within the law. They're treated like possessions. . . . and this little baby had to suffer."
Katherine Hannah, 29, of Virginia Beach has been charged with felony child abuse in connection with Melinda's injuries. The licensing division of the state Department of Social Services is considering taking away her registration certificate.
But Griggs remains disturbed by three things: Hannah still could legally keep up to eight children in her home, even without the certificate; neither police nor social workers could notify the parents of other children in Hannah's care about the charges; and the state's voluntary registration program, designed as a bargain-basement safeguard, provides little protection.
Around 4 p.m. on Oct. 26, Griggs said, she called Hannah to say she would come for Melinda as soon as possible, but she had to wait for a client of her dog-grooming business to pick up a pet. Everything seemed fine. An hour later, Griggs said, when she came for her 2-month-old daughter, the day-care operator was in the front yard, Melinda in her arms.
"I took her in my arms, she was limp. I called to Melinda, brought her up to my face. She was gasping very hard for air. I tried to blow in her mouth, but I had never been trained in CPR, and she was limp, mouth turning blue and very pale." - from Sherrie Griggs' personal journal
Melinda was taken to Virginia Beach General Hospital, then to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. By 1:30 a.m., a doctor came to them with the results of a spinal tap.
"[He] explained that there was blood in her spinal cord . . . and that told them they were most likely looking at blood around her brain, and the only way that this could happen was by her being shaken with tremendous force. I was in denial. This could not have possibly happened to my child."
"Melinda was admitted late in October, and her injuries specifically involved injuries to the brain itself and to the eyes," said Dr. John deTriquet, medical consultant for child abuse and neglect at King's Daughters. "When we have that complex of injuries - brain injury, bleeding above the brain, retinal hemorrhages and the absence of external injuries - we consider that diagnostic for the features of shaken-infant syndrome.
"It is important to emphasize that the injuries that these babies sustain are not due to a playful type of shaking," deTriquet said. "This is a violent, sustained, persistent type of injury that these youngsters have. It's a manifestation, in my mind, of a most severe and vicious physical assault on a young child."
Doctors at King's Daughters have seen an increase in shaken-baby injuries every year for the past five years, he said.
The Griggses thought they had been careful in choosing day care. The operator had been recommended, and she had voluntarily registered her day-care business with the state. In Hampton Roads, The Planning Council, a Norfolk-based human services agency, administers the program for the state.
Voluntary registration, which took effect in July 1992, provides a health and safety checklist that day-care operators fill out. The operator must make promises such as, "I take precautions to protect the health of the children entrusted to me." A Planning Council staff member then goes over the checklist with the provider. If approved, the provider's name is placed on a state list for two years.
The state monitors only 10 percent of the providers on that list each year.
Kathryn Wolf, director of child-care services for The Planning Council, said that day-care providers who voluntarily register undergo a background check for criminal history and have a tuberculosis test.
"They are not required to take any training at all," Wolf said. "This is bottom-line registration.'
But, she added, "It is a lot better than anything we've had in the past, which was nothing."
Virginia has issued 808 registration certificates through the program since Dec. 30, said Nan McKenney, voluntary registration coordinator for the state. None, to date, have been revoked.
McKenney said Hannah's certificate is being reviewed, and possible action cannot be discussed until a decision is made.
Voluntary registration is an advantage to day-care providers, McKenney said, and not only because they are eligible for federal food reimbursements, newsletters and training seminars.
"They can promote to parents that they have met certain standards at the point at which they were issued the certificate," McKenney said.
The certificate reassured Griggs when she was seeking day care for Melinda, but ultimately it made no promises.
Melinda fought a fever, then seizures, for nearly two weeks, moving in and out of intensive care.
"The seizures would not stop coming. It seemed like hours and one night after another, worse with each one. My heart was breaking. To see my child go through all she had already gone through, and now all of this."
Melinda needed blood, and she underwent more tests to eliminate other possible causes of her condition.
"The doctors confirmed medically . . . that Melinda had been shaken, there was no doubt. Behind her eyes was uncontrollable hemorrhaging. They did not feel she would have permanent brain damage, but her eyes they were not sure of. She was not responding with her eyes at all. All of this was more than any family could bear."
State law also was revised this year to lower the number of children that a home day-care provider could keep without a license. However, while the changes are being phased in, providers actually may keep more children than were allowed last year.
Before the change, providers could keep five unrelated children all day, plus any number of related children, without a license. Now, unlicensed providers can keep a total of eight. Beginning July 1, 1996, the total will drop back to five.
That is little comfort to Griggs, who wants to start a petition drive and organize a town meeting to work on revising day-care laws.
Up to now, Griggs and her husband, Doug, have put their efforts into caring for Melinda. The baby is home now, but she must be hooked up to heart and breathing monitors while she sleeps, and she takes anti-seizure medicine.
Griggs refuses to place her in another day-care situation. As Melinda recovers, Griggs plans her next course of action.
"I've got to put this anger I have inside of me to good," she said. "I think it would help people not to wait until it happens to them to do something. I knew child abuse was out there. But I never did anything to stop it."
Melinda's injury changed all that.
"It is a shame that any child should suffer at the hands of another, and it is a shame that we need professional people to fill this kind of a need, but the children of this world need us to help them, to help their families and many more people to take a stand against child abuse.
"For those children who can speak and understand, and no one is hearing them, and for those like Melinda, who may die before ever speaking their first word, this is being written. May God lead us in this battle against child abuse."
\ CHANGES IN STATE DAY-CARE REGULATIONS\ \ Number of children: People who provide day care in their homes do not have to be licensed by the state if they keep eight or fewer children. Previously, unlicensed providers could care for five unrelated children plus as many related children as they wanted.\ \ Age of children: Home day-care providers must now be registered or licensed by the state if they keep more than four children younger than 2, regardless of their relationship.\ \ Phase-in of licensing: Beginning this year, day-care homes serving nine to 12 children must have a state license. Beginning July 1, 1996, a license will be required for homes serving six to 12 children.\ \ Grandchildren: People who take care of their grandchildren only do not need a license.
by CNB