Baby in serious condition after allegedly shaken by nanny
Tot ‘wouldn’t stop crying,’ says suspect, who received a suspended sentence 12 years ago for abusing a foster child
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
The director of a childcare facility who was convicted 15 years ago of abusing a young girl in her care appeared Thursday in court, where she was remanded over suspicions she shook a four-month-old boy, causing him grievous injury.
Daniel Gerson was rushed to the emergency room of the Schneider Children’s Hospital in the central city of Petah Tikva on Monday after his parents picked him up from childcare and noticed that something was wrong.
The hospital found that the baby had bleeding in his brain and alerted police.
Appearing on Channel 2 Thursday evening, Daniel’s parents, Idan and Liron Gerson, both observant Jews, asked the public to pray for their son’s recovery. “On the one hand, we’re very worried; on the other we’re certain the department is doing all it can and giving him good treatment,” Idan Gerson said. “I’d like to use this opportunity to ask everyone who is watching us and has been exposed to this incident from the whole of Israel to pray for my child, for our son.”
“Following a report from the hospital about the arrival of a baby in serious condition, an investigation was opened out of which the suspicion against the nanny emerged,” the Ynet news site quoted Superintendent Sivan Freidin of the Sharon District Police as saying.
The nanny, aged 53, who operates the childcare in her home, reportedly told police that Daniel “cried constantly and wouldn’t quiet down, so I shook him. I didn’t mean to harm him.”
Dr. Elhanan Nahum, director of the emergency department, told Channel 2 News on Thursday that the baby was admitted in serious condition with “bleeding in the brain.”
“We’re at the stages of looking for the cause of the bleeding,” he said. “He is sedated and on a respirator. The baby has undergone a series of tests that raise suspicions that the injury was caused as the result of damage to the body, but at the moment, we are only at the beginning of the inquiry. It’ll take us another few days until we reach final conclusions.” Daniel was receiving maximum care to protect his vital organs, he said.
Nahum added, “I’m sorry to say that over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a number of cases in which babies have come to us with bleeding as a result of careless handling. We want to emphasize to all those who are caring for children, from family members to carers — treat them carefully.”
Shaking, aimed ostensibly at calming a baby, can cause serious damage to the brain.
In 2002, the nanny was accused of punishing a five-year-old girl she and her mother had fostered for playing with the water in the toilet. She hit the girl’s head on the toilet, pushed her against a wall and trod on her head, causing her injury. Together with her mother, she was also charged with beating the girl with her hands and a stick.
The two were sentenced in 2004 to suspended terms of 18 months. In addition, the nanny was ordered to complete 400 hours of community service.
At the time, Judge Lia Lev-On said the sentence was light because the two had readily admitted what they had done and had a clean past. But she wrote: “The girl’s transfer to you was supposed to ensure her safety and to give her days of light, and instead of that, and despite the huge hardship of raising her, you failed to shield her from additional suffering.”
The judgment said that “violence of any kind against a child is completely forbidden because in the balance of power, the adult’s hand will always be stronger.” Rather than teaching a child wisdom, violent behavior would cause bitterness anger and alienation, undermining the child’s trust in the adult destroying the positive aspects of his or her upbringing.
