Doctor: Infant died of head trauma, not deformity or difficult birth

In another round of testimony Thursday in new-trial hearings for Albert and Albert Debelbot, the parents sentenced to life in the 2008 death of newborn daughter McKenzy, a prosecution witness continued to insist the baby died of inflicted head trauma rather than abnormal development in the womb aggravated by a difficult delivery.

The prosecution expert was Dr. Susan Palasis, a pediatric radiologist and neuroradiologist, who denied defense claims the right side of the infant’s brain developed incompletely.

Palasis testified her review of the newborn’s brain scans showed “no congenital abnormality” that would explain the damage to the right hemisphere of McKenzy’s brain.

She said she concluded the infant had an injury to the right side of the head that left the tissue there “mushy,” as swelling in the left hemisphere displaced the brain, pushing it to the right.

Defense attorneys asked why the baby’s right frontal lobe was not displaced by the swelling from the left side. Palasis replied that an infant’s brain can accommodate some swelling because it is not fully formed, and the injury on the right side could have opened more room for the swelling.

The defense also asked why McKenzy’s scalp had no external injuries such as cuts or scratches, if she sustained significant abuse. Palasis said putting a heavy weight on the child’s head could have caused the skull fracture and other injuries and left no external signs.

Palasis was the only witness to testify Thursday, the first day of a third round of court hearings in the case.

The Debelbots’ defense attorneys over two days in mid-July presented witnesses who testified the child had a malformation of the skull, a congenital abnormality that can go undetected. This condition in addition to a problematic birth at Fort Benning’s Martin Army Hospital could have caused internal bleeding in the brain, they said.

In a second round of court hearings on Oct. 15 and 16, prosecutors summoned Palasis to refute the defense evidence from July.

Palasis said in October that McKenzy had skull fractures and massive bleeding from a “severe traumatic episode” comparable to what an unrestrained baby would sustain in a car wreck. “They were very bad fractures,” she said, adding she believed they were “intentionally inflicted,” not the result of a difficult birth.

“Somebody injured this child,” she said then.

Had the fractures been present when the baby was delivered, the hospital staff would have noticed a deformed and swollen head, she added. Instead records showed McKenzy had a normal delivery, normal bone density and a symmetrical skull indicative of normal brain development, she said.

According to court records, McKenzy was born May 29, 2008, and discharged at 1 p.m. the following May 31. Early the next morning, June 1, the parents checked on the baby in their Buena Vista Road apartment and found she had a lump on her head. They rushed her back to the hospital, where the infant was pronounced dead at 3:55 a.m.

Palasis in October testified that hospital records had no notations of brain damage when the infant was discharged, so the trauma must have occurred afterward.

Testimony in this third round of hearings is to resume today in Judge Art Smith III’s seventh-floor Government Center courtroom.

The defense is trying to prove that had jurors in the Debelbots’ 2009 trial heard expert testimony offering a different explanation for the child’s death, the couple likely would have been acquitted. The Debelbots’ defense attorneys at that trial did not present any expert witnesses, so jurors heard only the prosecution’s medical experts.

Smith may grant the Debelbots a new trial if he feels their current attorneys meet the threshold of proving the jury would have reached a different verdict, but prosecutors could appeal that decision.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Doctor: Infant died of head trauma, not deformity or difficult birth."