Margaret June Dittman “Maggie”
(Born: 11/6/1995 Shaken: 01/13/1998 ANGEL: 01/16/1998)
On Tuesday, January 13th, 1998, I returned home from work for lunch just as every other day. Maggie was feeling just a little bit fussy, but we thought that she was teething, and I read a story to her. Then Maggie, Alma (her babysitter) and I ate lunch together. I gave Maggie some Motrin for her teeth and soon she was feeling better. We played together for a little while, but then I needed to return to work. Whenever I left to return to work, Maggie always wanted to go with me. It was always hard to leave. She wanted to go outside, so we three left the house, Alma put Maggie into her little red wagon, and I got into the truck to leave. Maggie was sitting up in the wagon, waving, and said to me, “Bye-bye, Mama, bye-bye”. She was smiling and all seemed fine.
Forty minutes later Alma called me at work and said, “Maggie has fainted or something and I’m not sure that she’s breathing”. I replied, “If you’re not sure that she’s breathing, then call 911, and I’m on my way.” I sped home immediately, arriving even before the ambulance found the right driveway. The paramedics and I entered the house together. Alma was standing in the living room and said that Maggie was in her room. The paramedics asked Alma twice as they entered if Maggie had fallen, and Alma said no. Maggie was found lying on the floor, barely breathing, and unconscious. The paramedics worked with her, and tried to intubate her so that she could breathe, but had problems. Her teeth were clenched tightly shut. I called to Alma who was standing in the hall to phone my husband, Mark, to tell him what had happened. A couple of minutes passed and she told me that she had left a message for him. Later I realized that we had discontinued his voice mail, so that it would have been impossible for her to leave him a message! I got into the ambulance with Maggie and sped to the emergency room of nearby Valley Baptist Medical Center. Soon thereafter, Mark arrived, after dropping our son off at the house with Alma, having no idea what had caused Maggie’s collapse. He had seen three large drops of blood on our front door step when he dropped Matthew off, and when he asked Alma about them, she replied that they were from Maggie’s IV catheter, another lie!
Maggie lay in the hospital in a coma for three days. The first night she did not exhibit any cerebral activity; her EEG was absolutely flat. She had a CT scan upon arrival on the 13th and an MRI on the 16th, both showing severe brain swelling and irreversible damage. Her basic brain and body functions steadily declined. We had no other decision but to discontinue her life support, and on 12:35pm, Friday the 16th of January, she was declared dead. One of the things that we wanted was to donate her organs. Her body was perfect from the neck down, and perhaps some other children could have lived as a result of her death. We were told that due to the circumstances of her death, a complete autopsy was required, not only to her brain, but to her complete body since Alma had not confessed to anything. Being unable to help other children requiring transplants is something that I blame Alma for. Due to her failure to come forth with the truth, other children who were in dire need were denied Maggie’s organs.
Maggie was taken from this world after only two years, two months, and ten days of life. Although short, her life was full and she was well loved. It is our hope and goal that she will be remembered through her story that she will leave a valuable legacy. We will continue our efforts on her behalf to educate as many people as possible about shaken baby syndrome. We will continue to work to prevent abusive head trauma and all forms of child abuse. Justice for victims and families will always be a thing we strive for, and we will continue to support other families as they navigate the maze of this complicated life after the tragedy of SBS.
The following is a web address interview conducted with Maggie’s parents Mark and Kathy Dittman in Spanish. http://contacto.canal13.cl/contacto/html/Reportajes/Nanas_maltrato/23960.html |
