Boy shaken as a baby dies after 12 years on life support

FILE - In this April 16, 2004 file photo, Matthew Stein, right, father of Aiden Stein, kisses Arica Heimlich, the hospitalized boy's mother, after she testified during a hearing in Summit County Probate Court in Akron, Ohio. Aiden Stein died Sunday, March 20, 2016, at age 12 at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, after spending more than a decade in a vegetative state and on life support. Aiden Stein was hospitalized March 14, 2004, as a 4-month-old infant, and a jury found Matthew Stein guilty in September 2005 of child endangering and felonious assault, based on testimony that attributed the boy's injuries to shaken baby syndrome. (AP Photo/Jamie-Andrea Yanak, File)

By Associated Press March 23, 2016 3 min read

CLEVELAND (AP) – A 12-year-old boy who was shaken as a baby and remained in a vegetative state for the rest of his life has died, authorities said Wednesday.

Aiden Stein died Sunday at a Columbus hospital. The case drew national attention when his parents waged a successful legal fight to prevent a court-appointed guardian from having him removed from life support. Three doctors had testified that Aiden would never recover.

The Ohio Supreme Court eventually ruled that a probate court lacked the authority to allow a guardian to stop the care keeping Aiden alive when his parents hadn’t permanently lost their parenting rights.

Four-month-old Aiden was rushed to a Mansfield hospital on March 15, 2004, after his father, 21-year-old Matthew Stein, reported the baby had lost consciousness. Stein was later convicted of felonious assault and child endangerment and spent eight years in prison despite his assertions that he never injured his son.

Subsequent motions for a new trial, including one from 2013, were denied by appellate courts.