This is in regard to an article Oct. 17, by Abigail Curtis of the Bangor Daily News that appeared in the Sun Journal. 

What is an accident? Is it the death of a 9-week-old infant who dies after her frustrated father threw her to the floor because she was crying and would not stop? An act that caused “blunt force trauma to the head” with “multiple skull fractures?” Did an accident cause the “‘unexplained’ ‘healing rib fractures'” found on autopsy?

Nine-week-old infants do not engage in activities that can cause accidental rib fractures. An accident is falling while skiing and fracturing a leg or a rib. An accident is bumping into the principal when you are cutting school.

It must be difficult for a grandfather who cannot comprehend his son’s actions and masks them in the language and belief of “an accident.” This is not a question of whether this father “loved his baby.” A responsible adult would realize that this thoughtless act would injure a 9-week-old infant.

This is a question of personal responsibility; of acknowledging actions immediately and calling for an ambulance so that the appropriate medical evaluation and treatment could begin immediately, rather than making up lies to explain away a fatal injury to a 9-week-old.

Manslaughter is not a “tough charge.” It is the reality when one peels away the layers of “an accident.”

Hannah M. Pressler, Portland

Pediatric nurse practitioner