Chapter 1: What happened to Knowellan Kelly that led to his hospitalization?
True Story Media. Please note that this show discusses child abuse, which may be difficult for some listeners. For resources about abusive head trauma, go to shakenbaby.org.
Manchester County 911 with the address of the emergency. I've got a baby that's really sick here. He's coming in and out of consciousness. Tell me exactly what happened to him.
He's been sick. He's been running a fever.
Okay, so a fever.
I gave him some liquids. He threw it up, and then now he's just rolling around. He's going in and out of consciousness.
He's getting CPR given to him right now. Okay, are you right there with him? I'm here with him, yes. How old is the child? He's a little over a year old. One year old? Yes, he's a little over a year old. Okay, did he have a seizure? He seems like he almost had a seizure, yes. Okay, tell him to stop doing CPR if it's a seizure. Is he breathing? Is he breathing? Yeah, clearly he's gasping.
He's in bad shape. I understand. I'm getting help on the way. Try to stay calm. That's the only way we can help him, okay? All right.
On December 12, 2015, Nolan Kelly was taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital after his grandfather, Larry Crawford, called 911. He arrived at the hospital at 10.21 a.m. and was transferred to Johns Hopkins All Children's around 12.30 p.m., where he was placed on life support and examined by child abuse pediatrician Dr. Sally Smith.
Officers from the Manatee County Sheriff's Office responded and interviewed Danica and Larry at the hospital and John shortly after at Larry's house, and thus began their attempts to unravel what had led to 15-month-old Nolan's grave condition. People believe their eyes.
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Chapter 2: How did the medical professionals assess Knowellan's injuries?
What happened today? You're not aware of any? About 10 seconds and then he stepped out of it and was fine. Okay, but you didn't notify your regular pediatrician or?
In addition to the seizure that Nolan had suffered immediately before the Saturday 911 call, it would come to light that he had suffered a seizure the day before as well.
He fell asleep, I believe, in the white chair, if I'm not mistaken. And then basically a little bit after that... I took a picture of all three of us laying there, sent it to Danica, and then I heard Nolan make a noise. It was a weird noise, so I got up and I looked at him. And I still had the phone in my hand, so I was like, oh, let me take a picture of this. This isn't normal.
And I sent it to her.
Was it a picture or video?
It was just a picture. And I said, and I'm pretty sure what I said was because that morning she had asked me to give him some medicine.
Mm-hmm.
and I couldn't find any up until that point.
Was it antibiotics or?
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Chapter 3: What conflicting accounts did investigators uncover?
And then right after that, I found the freaking medicine. And I sent her a picture and I was like, so do you think I should still give him some? But the first day on Thursday, she was able to respond to me because she was just doing training and she was left on her own to watch stupid videos and crap like that. So she was able to, you know.
And then Friday, I didn't basically hear from her until I think an hour before I had to go pick her up.
Danica had told the police about a series of messages she'd received from John throughout the day that included photos and videos of Nolan. So when police arrived at Larry's house to interview John, they confiscated his cell phone and asked him if he had any other phones. He said he didn't, but when a deputy saw him with one an hour later, they confiscated that as well.
The police eventually recovered a series of messages and pictures, beginning at around 10 a.m. on Friday, showing Nolan draped over the side of a chair. There was a second photo where Nolan did not appear to be awake, and a third photo of him in a high chair with a plate of food in front of him, where his head is lulled back and his eyes are closed.
This third photo includes a message that reads, "'Not really happy, but eating. He's getting worse. Where is the medicine?' Then around 1215, John messages Danica to say, I think Nolan just had a seizure. He was napping on the bed, let out a loud yell, and then I got up and he was laying like he does. He's back asleep now. It's not the medicine. I couldn't find it. I'll keep you updated.
In the last message sent around 1230, John says that he found medicine, notes that Nolan is resting comfortably, and shows a photo of him laying down with his eyes closed. Here's what John told us about those messages.
I think he might've had, you know, a fit or a seizure because her, her other son has fits and seizures all the time. So I let her know, you know, I was like, Hey, you know, this is what's going on. Um, you know, what do you want me to do? And she was just like, basically said. Just monitor him. If he gets any worse, if anything else happens, you know, take him to the doctor or the hospital.
If not, when I see him, when you pick me up from work, I'll determine from there.
But according to John's police interview, Danica didn't see the messages until hours after Nolan's seizure.
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Chapter 4: What were the findings from the first hospital visit?
When you have especially a fatal level of abusive head trauma, the child has a change of consciousness that doesn't change significantly. It can worsen, but he's not gonna be like sitting up eating pizza, playing games or something after he suffers that level of brain injury. The brain is injured to the point that it's going to proceed to die. There's no, you know, normal level of activity.
Now, you know, you can imagine in a six or eight week old, they don't do a whole lot. So sometimes it can be a little bit difficult to tell exactly, you know, whether they were normal or not at a certain point in time. But a 15 month old child, he walks, he talks, he, you know, runs around, plays, he gets into arguments with his sibling, whatever.
Chapter 5: What did John Stewart describe about the events leading to Knowellan's condition?
There's all kinds of things that that child does. And, you know, from The time that those photos started being sent to Danica, at which time John was the caretaker for the child, and he admits that he was the caretaker for the child, he was asleep. That's not normal for a 15-month-old to be asleep all afternoon, vomiting.
Having weird movements, whether they're seizures or not, arching his back in a very abnormal manner. He clearly had, in my experience and training, significantly abnormal neurological condition on all of those photos.
Larry and Danica, the other two adults who were around Nolan during this time, describe him as either asleep or fussy and lethargic after Friday morning. During this time, both also report vomiting, which in addition to the seizure is a possible sign of abusive head trauma.
Danica describes Nolan falling asleep in the car shortly after John came to pick her up on Friday evening, but does say that he seemed more or less okay when she gave him a bath that night. Dr. Sally Smith recalls what she observed in her evaluation of Nolan on Sunday, December 13th.
I don't work for the child protection team anymore, so I have limited to no access to my records to really look exactly what happened, who called me, that kind of thing. But this child, Nolan Kelly, went to community hospital first on December 12, 2015. And he was in very serious condition. They put him on a ventilator immediately. They gave him things to try to decrease his brain swelling.
He was unresponsive. He had some pupillary activity, but they... Immediately called Johns Hopkins All Children's and sent him there for further management. And by the time he got to the ER, the first person that saw him said his pupils were reactive. But by the time the neurosurgeon saw him, like a half hour later, they were not.
So he was in a condition of rapidly progressing, you know, critical brain dysfunction.
What is that, the pupils being reactive versus non-reactive? Like, what does that indicate specifically? Yeah.
Well, the control of pupils closing and opening in response to light is controlled by a deep part of the brain called the brainstem. And when the brainstem is losing function, the pupils no longer show that normal reaction to light. And so that's one of the things, especially a child who comes in that seems to be in a coma, unresponsive.
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