by Karen Hinson
Reprinted with permission by
The Daily Press

A toddler's strong spirit inspires his grandfather to educate parents about the dangerous condition.

A trachea tube is attached to his throat. A feeding tube juts from his stomach.

When other 20-month-olds would be running and playing, Jared Patton, of Hampton, lies in a crib. Yet his eyes shine with recognition when he hears a friendly voice. And he seems to love the idea that his bedroom is filled with women who are doting on him.

"There's my little handsome man," Kathy Stowe coos at her grandson, a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome, or SBS.

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by Tamara Dietrich
Reprinted with permission by
The Daily Press

Jared's Law Could Spare More Pain

Jared's life was brutally cut short. After living with the results of being shaken as an infant, Jared Patton died in December 2009 from complications due to shaken baby syndrome. He wasn't with us long - but he leaves a legacy...

Last month, Steve Stowe educated a state House panel about "million-dollar babies.

These aren't kiddie prize-winners or beauty contestants — they're what's left over when babies are shaken so ferociously their fragile brains turn to mush. They're shells of the children they used to be, wracked with blindness, deafness, paralysis, mental and physical retardation, speech impairments or any combination. If they survive.

And the million dollars? That's roughly what we taxpayers spend in just one year to care for just one of these ruined infants in an institution.

Steve knows the drill because his grandson, Jared Patton, was a shaken baby. And for the three short years of Jared's life, Steve and his wife, Kathy, were his loving caretakers 24/7 in their Hampton home.

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