SIDS: Singapore: Open verdict on cot death

Oct 21, 2010

By Elena Chong

THE circumstances surrounding the death of a four-month-old baby girl remains a mystery.

A domestic worker had found the infant lying face down in her cot on the morning of March 5 when she wanted to feed her.
She alerted her employers who called for an ambulance. The baby, who had no pulse and visible injury, died about an hour later in hospital.
At an inquiry into the child's death on Thursday, the court heard that the baby was last fed by her father at around midnight on March 5.
A baby monitor device was placed beside the cot, and the other in the parents' room but they did not hear any sound during the night.
A senior consultant forensic pathologist, who performed the autopsy on the baby girl, was unable to ascertain the cause of death but did not rule out asphyxia or sudden infant death syndrome (Sids), which is one of the leading causes of death for children under the age of one. State Coroner Victor Yeo recorded an open verdict.
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_593509.html

SIDS: Australia: Inquest questions, Chapman

   HELEN KEMPTON   |   October 12, 2010 08.08am

 

 

THE father of a seven-week-old baby boy who died in 2008 yesterday told an inquest into his death that his estranged wife had described how his son stared into her eyes as she smothered him.

Geoff Chapman, 48, of Burnie, told coroner Olivia McTaggart his wife Katrina had confessed to him that she had smothered their son Lennox Paul Chapman on December 2, 2008.

Mr Chapman told the inquest his wife had told him she had taken the infant to bed and put her hand over his mouth and nose.

"She told me his little eyes kept staring at her, saying, 'What are you doing Mummy'," Mr Chapman said.

"He had the most gorgeous eyes and I knew that she was telling the truth."

The inquest heard Mr Chapman went to the police a few days later.

"I couldn't live with that on my conscience," he told the inquest.

Mr Chapman said he started to question whether his son had died from sudden infant death syndrome after overhearing his mother-in-law telling his wife she needed to stick to her story or face time in jail.

"I was coming in from the front deck when I heard it," he told the inquest in Burnie.

He said his mother had heard the same snippet of conversation as she came into the room with washing.

Mr Chapman told counsel assisting the coroner, Simon Brown, that his wife had given him alternate stories of what had happened on the day their son died.

He told the inquest his wife had phoned him at work on the day of the baby's death.

"She said, 'Lennox is bleeding, he is turning blue and has blood on him'," he told the inquest.

Mr Chapman went home and found his wife kneeling over their son on the tile floor.

"She was sobbing and crying hysterically," he said.

Mr Chapman said he started giving his baby mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

He told Mr Brown the baby was cold and a "funny grey colour". He said he could not hear him breathing.

Mr Chapman said that when the ambulance arrived at their West Ridgley home, Katrina told him she had taken the baby to bed but he was blue when she awoke.

He told the court that a couple of seconds later Katrina said the baby was in his cot and she had found him "blue" when she checked on him.

Mr Chapman said that his wife later talked of dropping the baby in the bath.

He told the inquest that, at first, he had thought the conflicting stories were the result of deep distress.

"It was horrible for both of us. I tried to reassure her that sometimes little bodies just stop," he said.

"I believed it was SIDS and that she was beating herself up. I was warned by medical professionals that both parents often blamed themselves.

"I still wonder what would have happened if I had stayed home that day and not gone to work. I wonder that every single day."

Mr Chapman told the inquest that some of his estranged wife's friends told him that Katrina Chapman had told them that she was responsible for Lennox's death.

The inquest will continue today.

SIDS: Nort Carolina, causes of death not pursued

Oct. 12, 2010

N.C. infants die every three to four days, on average, with little understanding of what killed them, you'd think the response would be a lot more urgent and considerably more dramatic.
A team of Observer reporters and editors this summer found that medical examiners often classify N.C. children's deaths as sudden infant death syndrome despite possible unsafe sleep conditions and other questions surrounding their deaths. That frequent diagnosis was likely masking the real cause: suffocation in pillows and blankets or even under an adult. The widespread use of that diagnosis slowed the education of parents about safe sleep habits. Law enforcement agents say a finding of SIDS prevents them from prosecuting neglect or other crimes.
The Observer series looked at 554 SIDS autopies over five years and found that authorities frequently fail to investigate the deaths thoroughly. Only about 25 babies, or five percent, were apparently sleeping safely, on their backs in their own cribs without dangerous bedding.
The diagnosis matters, because too-frequent SIDS findings make it harder to educate parents about safe sleeping. And that means we're not preventing as many deaths as we might.
The Observer series told the story of Autumn Brown, who died Nov. 20, 2007, at the age of 10 weeks in Alamance County. Her death was ruled SIDS, but her grandfather thinks she may have been smothered accidentally.
Makayla Peek was one month old when she died in Gaston County three years ago. Her death was also declared SIDS despite suspicions of foul play.
It's cases like these a legislative task force now hopes to minimize with changes in the state's response to child deaths.
Among the changes that the N.C. Child Fatality Task Force, chief medical examiner Deborah Radisch and others are examining:
All new law enforcement officers would be required to go through specialized training on child death scene investigations.
The state would hire trained investigators for regional offices, so all death scenes can be investigated properly.
Police would be urged to use a six-page, state-issued checklist at death scenes, which is now optional.
Those are important, and fine as far as they go. But why train only new law enforcement officers, and not all current ones? And task force co-chair Tom Vitaglione and N.C. Health Director Jeffrey Engel say state budget woes may delay the hiring of trained investigators for regional offices, something we obviously need. Also, why not require police officers to use the state-issued checklist, instead of just encouraging them to?
As long as meticulous investigations of child death scenes are optional, questions will loom about how N.C. infants are dying. And without information, parents and authorities can't address the problem.
We understand times are beyond tight for the state budget. We also know that taking basic steps that will help save babies' lives is money well spent.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/12/1755649/improvement-slowly-on-child-death.html#ixzz13HNkrgyt

SIDS: Psychiatric test ordered for alleged baby killer

By KEVIN MARTIN,
September 10, 2010
CALGARY - Suspected baby-killer Stacey Joy Bourdeaux will undergo an assessment to determine whether she was mentally ill at the time of the alleged offence six years ago.
Crown prosecutor Paul Mason on Friday asked Bourdeaux be sent to the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre to determine if she had a reduced mental capacity.
If so, Bourdeaux could be looking at a lesser charge of infanticide, instead of the second-degree murder allegation she currently faces.
"The second-degree murder case is one in which the accused is alleged to have murdered a child who was under the age of one year," Mason told Provincial Court Judge Marlene Graham.
He said because of the age of the victim, Bourdeaux is automatically entitled to be tested.
"It's the Crown's application to seek a mental health assessment ... to determine whether or not the accused was suffering a disturbance of the mind that might squarely fit her under the infanticide section of the (Criminal) Code," he said.
A charge of infanticide applies to new mothers who kill their children while their minds are "disturbed."
It relates to women who have not fully recovered from child birth and carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison.
Mason, with the agreement of defence counsel Rupert Joshi, sought a 30-day assessment, but told Graham an extension of Bourdeaux's testing may be required.
Bourdeaux, 33, who appeared in court via close-circuit TV from the Calgary Remand Centre, did not talk during the brief proceeding.
The Calgary woman is alleged to have killed her 10-month-old son, Sean Fewer, on Dec. 27, 2004.
The death was originally determined to be as a result of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
But after Bourdeaux was charged with attempting to murder a second son in May, police revisited the earlier death.
Cops are now saying the child was smothered.
Bourdeaux is currently detained on the attempted murder charge.
She has yet to have had a bail hearing on the murder allegation, which would carry an automatic life sentence if she were convicted.
The case returns to court Oct. 8.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/09/10/15314031.html