Original Article Feb. 27, 2005 Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: An odd case of 'shaken baby syndrome' Receiving word that her mother's husband had been diagnosed with throat cancer and might have only three months to live, Francine Yurko moved from Ohio to Florida with her 4-year-old daughter in July 1997. She was six months pregnant and not gaining weight. Francine's fiance, Alan, soon joined them. Francine was so ill with group B strep, a chronic E. coli infection, and gestational diabetes that she had lost two pounds, as well as 90 percent of her amniotic fluid. Labor was induced on Sept. 16. Baby Alan was born five weeks premature. He had underdeveloped lungs and respiratory distress. He was sent home after seven days in intensive care, but he did not thrive. At two months of age -- but only three weeks after his actual due date -- the baby was given a routine dose of vaccinations. "He was given six vaccines in one day," Francine told me in a phone conversation last week. "He already had a compromised immune system. ... You have to keep in mind that our child was seen virtually every week from the time he was born to the time he collapsed, either by his pediatrician or by some other medical professional, so we're not talking that this was a healthy, thriving child. It just amazes me how they failed to recognize the connection." The baby's health spiraled downward. On Nov. 24, he stopped breathing. His young father, home alone with the baby, borrowed a neighbor's car and raced to the hospital with his son in one arm, trying to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as he drove. The child reached the emergency room alive, but died soon thereafter. Police detectives arrived and questioned Alan at length. He was arrested and charged with killing his child through the newly recognized crime of "shaken baby syndrome." When Francine refused to cooperate and try to get Alan to make a secretly taped confession for police, Francine was also arrested. Her daughter was seized and placed in foster care, where she was molested. Alan was in an isolation cell for a year and a half, awaiting trial. Other prisoners threw urine and feces on him through the bars, calling him a "baby killer." The family had no money for a private attorney, but the sole expert defense witness did testify the baby had died of natural causes. Regardle