THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504080270
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LEESBURG LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Stephen and Sharon Devonshire say they take comfort in knowing their dead son's heart and liver gave two other infants the chance to live, and that his death from shaken-baby syndrome has awakened many people to the injury.
Brenton Scott Devonshire died in August, allegedly at the hands of his young Dutch nanny. The 8-week-old baby was the Devonshires' only child.
The Devonshires donated the baby's organs after he was declared brain-dead. Since then, the family's story has received wide media attention. The Devonshires speak gratefully of the local Lamaze instructors who, since hearing their story, have added to the curriculum a warning about shaking babies.
The couple said they don't know if they will try to have another child or whether, as Sharon Devonshire put it, they will ``ever learn to trust again.'' But they vowed to speak out about child abuse and shaken-baby syndrome, in hopes of sparing other families the pain they have gone through.
``Brent did more in eight weeks than most people do in a lifetime. That's what we're trying to hold on to,'' said Sharon Devonshire, 34, a human resources specialist at a Chantilly aerospace firm. ``He was the beginning of a lot of other children's lives.''
In their first interview, with The Washington Post, the couple recalled in quiet voices the joy they took in their son's short life and the devastation they felt at his death.
``You don't realize how much you were looking forward to spending your birthday, or Christmas, with your son,'' Sharon Devonshire said. ``Now Easter is coming up. And this would have been my first Mother's Day.''
On Wednesday, the 19-year-old nanny who looked after Brenton the day he was injured received probation through a plea agreement in which she acknowledged that evidence implicated her but did not admit guilt. Anna-Corina Peeze returned to her native Netherlands immediately.
After Brent was born, Sharon Devonshire spent seven weeks at home, using six weeks of maternity leave and one week of vacation. She and her husband said they could not afford to give up her salary.
On the advice of their lawyer the Devonshires would not discuss how they selected Peeze as their nanny, or ``au pair,'' the term used by government-sanctioned programs that bring young foreigners to this country for one-year babysitting jobs.
The Devonshires are considering a lawsuit against Peeze and the American agency that hired her. by CNB