Father to Be Arraigned in ‘Shaken Baby’ Case, Police Say : Crime: Felony charges may be filed against Buena Park man today, authorities say. The 6-week-old infant remains in critical condition but is expected to survive.

A 6-week-old remained in critical condition with brain damage Monday, and his father, Juan Carlos Rivera of Buena Park, was expected to face charges today that he shook the baby nearly to death.

Rivera, 20, was arrested Saturday after paramedics were summoned to the 7400 block of Iroquois Drive on a call that his infant boy was experiencing seizures, police said. Both parents were present at the time of the incident, Sgt. Bob Chaney said.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Orange County determined that the child, Christian Valdez, had been violently shaken and had suffered brain damage, police said.

The baby remained on life support systems Monday, but his chances of survival appeared good, said Dr. Sana Al-Jundi, a member of the hospital team in charge of the case. The extent of irreversible brain damage remains unknown, she said.

“The brain is still in its development stages,” she said, “so we really don’t know the extent of damages until the child reaches that development milestone at about 4 months old.”

At that age, physicians can measure the accomplishments of the child against the standard development of other children, Al-Jundi said.

Preliminary examinations revealed that the infant had suffered from “shaken baby syndrome,” where the developing connective tissues of a newborn are damaged internally due to traumatic forces, Al-Jundi said. The torn tissues cause a range of injuries, from severe bleeding of the brain to blindness.

“We know that these injuries could not have resulted from something like a fall because there were no external signs,” Al-Jundi said. “There were no bruises, no scratches.”

Doctors also see indications that both legs may have been fractured, but need to do additional tests to confirm that, she said. The seizures, she said, probably happened within 24 hours of the trauma.

“We get these ‘shaken baby’ cases every once in a while,” Al-Jundi said. “And it’s hard to deal with every time.”

Rivera remained in the city jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. He is expected to be arraigned today on felony child abuse charges, Chaney said.