Baby’s deathunexplained

MYSTERY surrounds the death of a five-week-old baby who died in his parents’ bed.

An inquest heard how little Jamie Farmer had shown no signs of illness the night before his death on February 26th.

His mum Josephine, of Bank Street, Brierfield, had taken him up to her bedroom in his Moses basket at around midnight and said he was acting as normal.

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Shortly afterwards, Jamie’s sister Lauren came into the room complaining of feeling unwell and got into bed with Josephine, Jamie’s dad Thomas, and another sibling, Aiden.

Jamie then woke up and Josephine picked him up and laid with him at the bottom of the bed.

In a statement she had previously given, read out by East Lancashire coroner Mr Richard Taylor, Josephine said Jamie fell asleep in her arms and she must have fallen asleep shortly afterwards.

She awoke to find Jamie lifeless in the bed and although the ambulance was immediately called, nothing could be done to save him.

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Dr Gauri Batra, paediatric pathologist at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, said no external or internal injuries were found and there was no sign of any infections.

“The post-mortem examination failed to find a cause of death and therefore the cause of death is unascertained,” she said.

She did say that there were increased incidents of unexpected death when more people shared a bed, citing accidental airway obstruction as a cause.

“There is no evidence of this because it does not show itself,” she did say though. “Conditions causing sudden and unexpected infant death may also just be unknown to medical science at the moment.”

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The coroner returned an open verdict saying: “The loss of a child in these circumstances is a tragic event. The doctor could not say what had happened and I certainly cannot say how this happened. The evidence does not point to the cause of death being caused by one thing or the other. That is why I must return an open verdict.”