Rating: 
Summary: Extremely good book!!
Review: The Death of Innocents is really one of the best true crime books that I've read. It is quite detailed and complete, while the science presented is neither too dumbed down or above understanding. I highly recommend this book!! It is also a VERY interesting look into the workings of science when money is a motivator.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely good book!!
Review: The Death of Innocents is really one of the best true crime books that I've read. It is quite detailed and complete, while the science presented is neither too dumbed down or above understanding. I highly recommend this book!! It is also a VERY interesting look into the workings of science when money is a motivator.
Rating:
Summary: A classic true crime and medical mystery
Review: The Death of Innocents tells the gripping real life story of the tragic intersection of medical research into SIDS and the infanticide of five babies. It is one of the best true crime books I have read and it is destined to be a classic true crime book and deserves to be a best seller. I could not put it down. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best non-fictions books I have read
Review: This book is a must for anyone interested in epidemiology, SIDS, junk science or public policy. It is thoughtful, interesting (even thrilling), and meticulously reported. I was so intrigued by this book that I went to the library and dug up the seminal article upon which much of SIDS junk science is based. It's amazing to me that an article that seems so scientific could be so misleading. That, I think, is one of the major points of this book: Don't be dazzled by fancy statistics and graphs. Ask the "stupid" questions. Use your common sense. Very highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The most gripping and important true crime book in years
Review: This book is a must read for those in the forensic pathology field. A physician, through falsified data, single-handedly brought about the multi-million dollar infant apnea monitor movement, inflicting untold damage to the truth in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome while at the same time aiding those parents who murder their children!
Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Book
Review: This book was <<an epistemological adventure--how do we know what we know?--as well as a study of crippling ambition, a detective story, a courtroom drama, and a showcase for superb research and organization>> according to Frederick Busch, who reviewed it for The New York Times.The quote above just about says it all. The book read like fiction and was carefully detailed. All of the medical terminology was easily understood and thoroughly explained. The authors stated that the theme of the book is "the emotionally-charged intersection of SIDS and infanticide." Almost all of what we have known of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) for the last 20 years was based on work done by Dr. Alfred Steinschneider in upstate New York. His findings were based primarily on two children (Molly and Noah Hoyt) who died while under his care in the early 1970s, following the deaths of three of their siblings in previous years. Steinschneider thus "determined/concluded" that SIDS was familial and caused by apnea (pauses in breathing while sleeping). To combat these deaths, he pushed the use of home monitors for babies who were considered "at risk". His landmark paper in 1972 in The Journal of Pediatrics shaped medical thinking for the next 20 years. Yet he had used only a tiny sample and had no control group. This article and subsequent ones cleared peer review committees despite obvious flaws. He arranged facts to fit his theory over the next years. His fundamental deception/fabrication was that apnea episodes were documented in the hospital for the two children who died --but there was NO documentation!! In fact, Steinschneider had repeatedly ignored concerns of the pediatric nursing staff about the mother, Waneta Hoyt. I found it incredible that a hypothesis was presented and accepted by the medical community based on only 5 cases and 2 deaths! I think this shows how desperate people were for a quick way to predict and prevent SIDS. Because of the prevalence and acceptance of this theory, Munchausen Syndrome by Prozy (when a parent, usually a mother, harms or kills a child, usually to get attention) was rarely considered when a very young child died. In the next 20 years, the monitor business became a multi-million dollar business and many people got rich from it. Steinschneider himself never owned stock in any monitor company, but his research was underwritten by one of them, Healthdyne, whose fortunes then became dependent on the doctor's continuing research findings about apnea. A vicious circle! Also, leading SIDS researchers conducted seminars, which were funded by Healthdyne grants, then gave out information on monitors to the participants. What particularly disturbed me was the fact that Dr. David Southall, from England, had refuted Steinschneider's theories and proven them to be false with very extensive research of his own But until the 1986 Apnea Consensus Conference, no one appeared to listen to him. This conference was the first time that Steinschneider's theory was formally investigated or questioned by an official group of his peers. In the early 90s, a coincidental series of events led a district attorney in upstate NY to begin investigating the deaths of the Hoyt children. This led to the 1994 arrest and conviction of Waneta Hoyt for the murder of all five of her children. The authors make it clear that not only was the mother on trial for murder, but that Steinschneider's theory was also on trial. The trial's outcome demonstrated that the entire premise for SIDS for the last 20 years was false. In the words of several prominent pediatric forensic specialists: if there is one infant death in a family, it is probably SIDS. Two deaths should be considered suspicious. Three deaths are homicide. What was especially shocking to me was the information in this book about Massachusetts General Hospital's SIDS program. Mass General had positioned itself as "the" place to bring babies thought to be "at risk" for SIDS. Yet the program, run by Drs. Kelly and Shannon, disciples of Steinschneider, was governed by a false, 20- year-old theory. The pediatric department had had a long history of ignoring suggestions of child abuse, some of it fatal, when a young doctor named Tom Truman arrived for a research fellowship in pediatric critical care. Truman secretly investigated all of the deaths of children who were "at risk" and found that in 155 deaths which occurred after multiple "events" (instances of unconsciousness, etc.), Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy was never considered, even in one family when the "events" stopped after the children were placed in foster care. The authors said: "In the Shannon-Kelly team, some [abusive] mothers found the allies they needed. In their babies, the doctors found the data they needed. Locked in this symbiosis, Mass General appears to have become a Munchausen haven, while contaminating the research of SIDS with highly dubious data." I would highly recommend this book not only for its interesting subject matter but because it was so well done. The meticulous and documented research was presented in a scholarly yet easily-understood manner.
Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Book
Review: This book was <> according to Frederick Busch, who reviewed it for The New York Times.The quote above just about says it all. The book read like fiction and was carefully detailed. All of the medical terminology was easily understood and thoroughly explained. The authors stated that the theme of the book is "the emotionally-charged intersection of SIDS and infanticide." Almost all of what we have known of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) for the last 20 years was based on work done by Dr. Alfred Steinschneider in upstate New York. His findings were based primarily on two children (Molly and Noah Hoyt) who died while under his care in the early 1970s, following the deaths of three of their siblings in previous years. Steinschneider thus "determined/concluded" that SIDS was familial and caused by apnea (pauses in breathing while sleeping). To combat these deaths, he pushed the use of home monitors for babies who were considered "at risk". His landmark paper in 1972 in The Journal of Pediatrics shaped medical thinking for the next 20 years. Yet he had used only a tiny sample and had no control group. This article and subsequent ones cleared peer review committees despite obvious flaws. He arranged facts to fit his theory over the next years. His fundamental deception/fabrication was that apnea episodes were documented in the hospital for the two children who died --but there was NO documentation!! In fact, Steinschneider had repeatedly ignored concerns of the pediatric nursing staff about the mother, Waneta Hoyt. I found it incredible that a hypothesis was presented and accepted by the medical community based on only 5 cases and 2 deaths! I think this shows how desperate people were for a quick way to predict and prevent SIDS. Because of the prevalence and acceptance of this theory, Munchausen Syndrome by Prozy (when a parent, usually a mother, harms or kills a child, usually to get attention) was rarely considered when a very young child died. In the next 20 years, the monitor business became a multi-million dollar business and many people got rich from it. Steinschneider himself never owned stock in any monitor company, but his research was underwritten by one of them, Healthdyne, whose fortunes then became dependent on the doctor's continuing research findings about apnea. A vicious circle! Also, leading SIDS researchers conducted seminars, which were funded by Healthdyne grants, then gave out information on monitors to the participants. What particularly disturbed me was the fact that Dr. David Southall, from England, had refuted Steinschneider's theories and proven them to be false with very extensive research of his own But until the 1986 Apnea Consensus Conference, no one appeared to listen to him. This conference was the first time that Steinschneider's theory was formally investigated or questioned by an official group of his peers. In the early 90s, a coincidental series of events led a district attorney in upstate NY to begin investigating the deaths of the Hoyt children. This led to the 1994 arrest and conviction of Waneta Hoyt for the murder of all five of her children. The authors make it clear that not only was the mother on trial for murder, but that Steinschneider's theory was also on trial. The trial's outcome demonstrated that the entire premise for SIDS for the last 20 years was false. In the words of several prominent pediatric forensic specialists: if there is one infant death in a family, it is probably SIDS. Two deaths should be considered suspicious. Three deaths are homicide. What was especially shocking to me was the information in this book about Massachusetts General Hospital's SIDS program. Mass General had positioned itself as "the" place to bring babies thought to be "at risk" for SIDS. Yet the program, run by Drs. Kelly and Shannon, disciples of Steinschneider, was governed by a false, 20- year-old theory. The pediatric department had had a long history of ignoring suggestions of child abuse, some of it fatal, when a young doctor named Tom Truman arrived for a research fellowship in pediatric critical care. Truman secretly investigated all of the deaths of children who were "at risk" and found that in 155 deaths which occurred after multiple "events" (instances of unconsciousness, etc.), Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy was never considered, even in one family when the "events" stopped after the children were placed in foster care. The authors said: "In the Shannon-Kelly team, some [abusive] mothers found the allies they needed. In their babies, the doctors found the data they needed. Locked in this symbiosis, Mass General appears to have become a Munchausen haven, while contaminating the research of SIDS with highly dubious data." I would highly recommend this book not only for its interesting subject matter but because it was so well done. The meticulous and documented research was presented in a scholarly yet easily-understood manner.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a must-read!
Review: This book will astound, amaze, and depress you. Like A Civil Action, this true story is more gripping than fiction, and it reveals a side of medical research that I had never imagined. This will be on my Book Club's 1999 roster.
Rating:
Summary: Taut Thriller
Review: This is a first rate examination of the convergence of emotion, bad science, politics and homicide that has defined the SIDS movement in the past 30 years. I would certainly recommend this fine book to anyone that has an interest in SIDS or munchausen sydrome by proxy. But, in truth, anyone that appreciates a crisply written account of crime obscured by pain and scientific irresponsibily will find all 600 some pages of this book to be a pleasure. This is a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Unbearably powerful
Review: This is a masterpiece -- possibly the finest true crime book I've ever read. One reads it with the sense of mounting horror that I usually associate with the Greek tragedies. Simply magnificent -- and devastating.
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