Pretoria - The parents of a baby girl who may have been left blind and brain-damaged, possibly due to shaken baby syndrome, have laid a criminal charge against her nursery school, Beeld reported on Friday.
The six-month-old girl was so badly injured that doctors had given her only a 50-percent chance of survival.
Her parents dropped her off at the nursery school in Faerie Glen, Pretoria, last Wednesday morning.
The school called just after 10am and said the girl couldn't breathe and she was being rushed to the Faerie Glen Hospital.
The girl was resuscitated, then transferred by ambulance to the Wilgers Hospital while she had persistent seizures and convulsions.
At the Wilgers Hospital, a paediatrician initially thought she had meningitis, but tests could not confirm this.
A paediatric neurologist did brain scans, which showed bleeding and swelling on her brain. She also had retinal bleeding.
The neurologist diagnosed shaken baby syndrome, the report said.
The owner of the nursery school said in a statement that she had no idea what could have caused the baby's condition. - Sapa