Luck saved the life of a 13-month-old girl who was allegedly put in a tumble dryer, a court heard yesterday.
The toddler suffered skull injuries. One of two fractures to the rear of her head was depressed and a circular piece of bone narrowly missed trapping the vein which drains blood away from the brain, a surgeon told Dundee Sheriff Court.
Jayaratnam Jayamohan, a consultant at a hospital in Oxford, said the injury was not life-threatening but added: “That’s from luck.”
He was giving evidence at the trial of Thomas Dunn, of Hamilton, who is accused of placing the baby in a tumble dryer and switching it on, along with two other charges of assaulting the same child over a two-week period.
Mr Jayamohan studied reports from paediatricians and a radiographer, along with the explanation given by Dunn to doctors and nurses of how the baby had fallen and hit her head on a pram.
He said the explanation given “did not fit with the injuries sustained”.
He added the “significant gap” of several hours where she displayed normal behaviour before becoming floppy also did not fit.
He said a fall forward could not have caused a fracture to the side or the rear of the head, and a single blow could not have caused both fractures.
Asked by fiscal depute Nicola Gillespie if they would have required two separate “significant impacts,” he replied: “Yes.”
The fiscal asked if surgery had been required, how would that have been done. Mr Jayamohan said he would have had to drill through the skull as “they are not soft bones”.
The trial, before Sheriff Alastair Brown and a jury, continues.
