I was the Victim of Abusive Head Trauma, Commonly known as Shaken Baby, at the Hands of My Father, M
I'm here with my mom, Cathy Bernardini. I had had her telling me unfortunately reliving the incident where Mike Rinder, my father, abused her and mutilated her arm and pulled the shoulder out of its socket to the point where she had to get surgery, months of rehab. And to this day and for the rest of her life she will not have full use of that arm. I had also wanted to go over a few other points of abuse with her. And so we're here together. Hi, mom. So I was wondering you told me before about him mistreating me as a child and I know there was an incident where he was shaking me. And I don't know if you have any other, I mean I wouldn't like you to because I wouldn't have wanted it to happen, but if you could just tell me again what actually happened and what that was like?
Mom: Well you were an infant, a few months old, and you got up every few hours to eat. And I normally would wake up always, no problem, and feed you and so forth. I was also holding a job during the day and I think after awhile there was one time in the middle of the night that I probably was tired.
- Yeah, I'm sure.
Mom: And I didn't hear you right away. So Mike got up and he was pissed that you were crying. And he grabbed you out of the crib and held you up with both arms and was shaking you like this. And by that time I of course got up.
- You obviously had noticed.
Mom: And I lunged for you and grabbed you out of his hands 'cause I saw what he was doing. He was just you don't do that to an infant, you do not. Like your head was going back and forth a mile a minute and he was just was like shaking a rag doll. And you just screamed more.
- Of course.
Mom: So I took you. He just went back to bed, I fed you. From that moment forward, I almost didn't sleep.
- Because you were so worried.
Mom: Every time you cried 'cause it was time for the next feeding, I was out of that bed so fast.
- God, awful.
Mom: I was totally shocked. It was one of those moments and you go wow.
- I get it.
Mom: Yeah, I was like electrified. You know that feeling where you have to just stay up all the time to make sure nothing--
- That your baby's fine.
Mom: Yeah, of course.
- I understand.
Mom: And that was fine with me and that's what I did. And I loved it and I love you. And that's what happened, unfortunately. I'm sorry.
- Well I'm sorry that you had to live through that too. That's just awful. I'm sorry I had to live through it and I'm sorry that Mike Rinder doesn't care.
Mom: Yeah.
- You know what I mean? I'm sorry you had to live through it. And I love you too.
Mom: Good.
- Okay, well that's that story. We'll be back.