Opinion ID: 1057682
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Testimony of Dr. Mary Campbell

Text: Dr. Mary Campbell, who holds board certifications in both pediatric emergency medicine and pediatrics, provides specialty consultations on child abuse at Children's Hospital in addition to her duties providing pediatric and pediatric emergency care. She had previously testified on a number of occasions  generally two or three times a month  on pediatric medicine issues in litigation involving possible child abuse. Dr. Campbell saw S.H. on July 25 at the request of Dr. Nunley, some twelve days after the first report of her injury. When Dr. Campbell examined S.H., she found the same injuries noted by other doctors, specifically swelling and bruising of her lower right leg and a single bruise on her chest wall. Upon reviewing the medical history provided by Drs. Morris and Nunley, Dr. Campbell found no signs of other medical problems that might explain the injuries. She confirmed that there was no evidence or family history of brittle bone disease. It was Dr. Campbell's opinion that a fall of the nature described by the Defendant might have accounted for injuries to S.H.'s right foot and the lower portion of her right leg, but she stated that a fall of that nature would not account for the higher corner fractures near the knee. For a variety of reasons, Dr. Campbell concluded that S.H. suffered from inflicted trauma. She pointed out that there were multiple fractures and also concluded that the fractures appeared to be the result of a very impressive amount of force  enough that [t]here was concern for dislocation of the foot. Dr. Campbell also concluded that a variety of other factors, such as the delay between the injury and the first medical treatment and the nature of the rib and bucket-handle corner fractures in the legs, supported her conclusion that S.H. had been abused. Dr. Campbell also testified that it was very evident in every examiner's notes that S.H. had pain in her right leg, and that the leg was especially ... painful over a period of one to two weeks.