Lawrence R. Ricci, MD
What Happened in the Woodshed by Maine writer Lawrence R. Ricci, MD

Lawrence R. Ricci, MD

Author of What Happened in the Woodshed: The Secret Lives of Battered Children and a New Profession to Protect Them published by Praeger an imprint of ABC-CLIO.

A riveting exposé of child abuse in America and how the newest breed of pediatricians determines what happened, why, and at whose hands. Although more than one million children are abused each year in the United States, child abuse often remains a secret to family members, professionals, and politicians who neither see nor understand it. detective-like acumen, child abuse pediatricians deduce through careful medical analysis who has abused and who has been abused. Describing the most compelling cases among the thousands that they have evaluated, author Lawrence Ricci reveals the trauma, pain, disability, and sometimes death that abused children experience at the hands of trusted adults. This gripping look at the dark side of American families is about the professionals who have made it their career to expose child abuse and to treat children who have suffered from it. The conclusion calls for systematic changes that could help to stem the tide of child abuse.

Lawrence R. Ricci, M.D. is dual residency trained and successfully completed his boards in Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, and Child Abuse Pediatrics. Dr. Ricci is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Tufts Maine Medical Center College of Medicine. He is a board certified child abuse pediatrician specializing in the evaluation and treatment of abused children as medical director of the Spurwink Child Abuse Program in Portland, Maine. Dr Ricci started this program in 1986 originally in Waterville Maine then later Portland Maine.

The Child Abuse Program is a multidisciplinary statewide referral center for Maine children with satellites in Waterville and Bangor Maine. The program evaluates over 1000 children and 250 adults annually for abuse concerns. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Ricci has evaluated and treated several thousand children for abuse concerns. He is on the consulting staff at Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital (BBCH) where he spends time training pediatric residents in clinical settings and monthly didactic sessions. He is in addition the director of the Pediatric Advocacy Program and resident rotation at Barbary Bush.

Dr. Ricci has served on a number of state and national child abuse committees including former Chair of the Maine Child Death/Serious Injury Review Panel (1992-2008) and former Chair of the Section on Child Abuse of the American Academy of Pediatrics (1990-1994). He is a former president of the Ray Helfer Society (2002-2004), an international society of several hundred physicians specializing in the care of abused children.

Dr. Ricci has developed numerous child abuse workshops throughout Maine and around the country; these have been presented to social workers, mental health professionals, legal professionals, and medical professionals. He has published approximately 25 articles and book chapters in the field of child abuse evaluation and treatment.

His awards have included the following:

2009: National Center on Shaken Baby Award to State of Maine for Prevention Program

2009: Maine Children’s Trust Award for Professional of the Year

2016: Outstanding Service to Maltreated Children from the Section on Child Abuse of the American Academy of Pediatrics

2016: Outstanding Contribution to the field of Child Abuse Pediatrics from the Ray Helfer Society