Pediatrics Expert Witness Opines In Child Abuse Case

Dr. Joseph Maytal, expert witness and specialist at Schneider Children’s Hospital on Long Island, testified Friday that an infant boy taken away from his parents amid allegations that he was shaken was not the victim of child abuse. “I think that we have enough here to at least doubt that there is child abuse,” said the pediatrics expert witness. Dr. Maytal testified in St. George Family Court during the trial to determine whether Qundeel Sajjad and her husband, Sohail Sajjad, can regain custody of their two young boys from the city Administration for Children’s Services. silive.com also reports:

Mrs. Sajjad, 31, was the first Islander to be accused under Cynthia’s Law when prosecutors alleged that she violently shook her 7-month-old and caused him to be hospitalized with internal bleeding on the brain in December 2006. The mother of two and her husband claimed the infant fell 3 feet from a baby swing onto a hard kitchen floor….

Dr. Maytal, who reviewed the child’s hospital and follow-up medical records, said the baby suffered from “external hydrocephalus,” a condition that can cause bleeding on the brain in infants. “It means the child is susceptible to bleeding,” Dr. Maytal said. ‘Infants with external hydrocephalus] don’t need to have a major trauma to have a subdural hematoma,’ Dr. Maytal explained, noting that the baby’s condition could have been the result of genetics rather than a violent shaking.