Texas investigator found 30+ bruises, cuts on dead boy adopted from Russia

[dkf]

(CNN) -- A 3-year-old adopted boy -- whose death in West Texas has drawn stern criticism from Russia -- had more than 30 bruises, cuts and other marks on his body soon after he was pronounced dead, according to a report from a Texas medical examiner obtained by CNN.

Along with his 2-year-old brother, Max Shatto arrived in the United States with his adoptive parents in November 2011. Just more than two months later, his adoptive mother told authorities that she found him unresponsive in the family's Gardendale, Texas, backyard. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital.

Soon after Max's death on January 21, Russia's top child rights advocate tweeted that the boy had been "killed" or "murdered." Children's Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov later acknowledged he might have spoken too soon -- though he has remained highly critical of the U.S. handling of the case.

The documents were obtained Thursday from the medical examiner's offices for Ector County and Tarrant County. They offered more details from the account by Laura and Alan Shatto about the boy's time in America as well as the condition of his body at the time of his death.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/us/texas-russian-adoption-death/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Poor little guy...

[dballance]

1. On a more positive and timely note

One of my sets of friends who are male partners (they live in NC) adopted two boys from Russia several years ago. Even though we're on opposite sides of the country we keep in touch. I constantly get to see pictures of them taking the boys on "learning" trips to new places where they hike, dive, etc. I also get to see the pictures of them taking the boys to do volunteer work at the local food bank, mission and other places. They seem to be very happy kids.

I feel very bad for this child and for his adoptive parents. It must have been awful for all of them. It sounds like it's possible he had FAS and the long-term effects from it.

[LisaL]

2. Awful for them? And how was it for the child?

Even if he actually did die from a self-injury, it seems to me he was unsupervised to be able to inflict such an injury on himself. I am not sure what these people were thinking while adopting the child. They had to have been told that mother had a drinking problem. If he actually did have all these issues, seems like being in a orphanage (institution) in Russia would have been best for him.

[dballance]

3. DO NOT SCOLD ME - I Clearly Included The Child in My Sympathies

Your pithy little title is an insult. I included the child as one of the parties for whom things must have been awful. So do not try to twist things to make it seem I have no sympathy for the child.

You have no idea what these parents were told or were thinking at the time of adoption. You have no idea if the child had exhibited any of the behaviors listed in the article before adoption. Even if he had you don't know whether or not the Russians warned these people.

So they were told his mother had a drinking problem. That doesn't mean he necessarily had something like FAS or other mental issues or that mental issues would ever manifest themselves. So your option is just to leave him in the "institution" - that's nice.

The coroner said: "On the whole, there appears to be a strong likelihood that this death was accidental, probably the consequence of a fall from playground equipment in his yard." It is impossible for parents to monitor their kids 100% of the time. We know this from the number of other kids who die from falls from playground equipment or drown in backyard pools every year.

[LisaL]

4. Well he made it to 3 years in Russia but only lasted a couple of months in US.

You do the math.

[dballance]

5. The Math Tells Us Nothing

We don't know how he was handled in Russia. Maybe he was restrained or restricted so much he couldn't do anything, much less harm himself. Maybe the Russians used these people to get rid of a problem they didn't want to deal with.

We don't really know.

[LisaL]

6. Russians stopped adoptions to US.

Seems rather unlikely their goal is to get rid of problematic children.
And I would like to know if he was in fact self-injuring in Russia.