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Baby dies after suffocating in a baby sling (7 April 2014)

Date: 07/04/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Baby dies after suffocating in a baby sling

An inquest into the death of a five-week-old baby has heard how he suffocated in a baby sling as his parents took him for a short walk to try and soothe him.

St Pancras Coroner’s Court in London heard that Eric’s mother Marianne, 35, and father Robert, 48, from Harrow in north London, took baby Eric for a 10-minute walk on Christmas Eve last year to calm him down when he was crying.

Eric was facing towards his mother as she carried him in the baby sling – but when the couple returned home they found he was no longer breathing. Mrs Matthews told the court:

“We went for a short walk with him. He was in the sling. He was crying in the beginning, then he stopped crying. On the way back he was falling asleep. When we got home, we found he wasn’t breathing.”

The couple also told the court that their baby had blood in his nose. They performed emergency CPR on him, but Eric died in Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in central London 10 days after the incident.

Baby slings have become popular among parents as a natural way to carry their babies. The infant is held close to the parent’s chest and can hear their heartbeat, while being held securely in the sling.

Paediatric pathologist Dr Mary Malone carried out a post-mortem on Eric and she told the inquest that deaths in baby slings were often the result of the infant suffocating because of their position in the sling.

The court heard that in the UK, six infants have died in baby slings – in the US and Canada, 16 deaths have been recorded.

In California, a manufacturer of baby slings was forced to recall more than a million of them in 2010, after three infant deaths were reported as a result of parents using the slings.

Mrs Matthews told the inquest:

“All the baby books say that slings are good for babies. We knew the cot death stuff about babies on their backs – that is really well known.

“But we didn’t know about this. I don’t want to scaremonger but I think it isn’t known about this,“ she added.

The coroner Richard Brittain told the inquest that Eric’s was an “extremely tragic death”. He ruled the cause of death as the baby’s airways becoming blocked.

Since Eric’s death, research into infant deaths caused by baby slings has been started by senior pathologist Dr Rosemary Scott.

Mrs Matthews has also started a charity in her son’s name – Eric Laser Matthews.

“Eric’s short life has made us want to give something back to those who helped us in those difficult last days,” said Mrs. Matthews.

“The amazing people at Great Ormond Street showed great care and dedication.”

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