A newborn baby died while co-sleeping with her mother after slipping from her hands.
As an inquest heard, little Lilly-Marie Tina Harris was just six weeks old when she died unexpectedly at her home in Woolwich, London.
According to the court documents, the baby girl’s mother was feeding her child via bottle before they both fell asleep on the sofa along with the baby’s father.
In the middle of the night, however, the father woke up and immediately realized something was wrong with his daughter who appeared lifeless.
After calling the paramedics, the baby girl was rushed to the hospital and a CT scan confirmed that she suffered “severe hypoxic insult to her brain.”
On the following morning, baby Lilly was pronounced dead.
“Lilly’s father had been in the same room as Lilly and her mother. Lilly had had a feed and had fallen asleep in her mother’s arms. He had then fallen asleep and at some point Lilly’s mother had fallen asleep,” Coroner Fleur Hallett told the inquest.
“He then woke with a start and could not see that Lilly’s mother was holding her anymore. He went over and saw that Lilly had slipped underneath her mother. He immediately woke Lilly’s mother up.”
While the baby’s death was ruled as an accident, both a forensic pathologist as well as a pediatrician agreed that the baby girl died of “generalized and diffuse ischemia affecting the brain and spinal cord following an unsafe sleeping environment involving close sleeping with an adult.”
“Given the facts and the evidence we have heard I do believe, on the balance of probabilities, that it is appropriate to return a conclusion of accident,” the coroner concluded.
“That is because baby Lilly-Marie fell asleep in her mother’s arms. Lilly-Marie’s mother also fell asleep and at some point in the following two-and-a-half hours, she slipped down underneath her mother.”
What are your thoughts on this co-sleeping tragedy? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to SHARE this post with your family and friends. For more news and stories, follow us on Facebook!
Recommended Video For You!
Newborn Twins Have Their First Conversation In The Hospital Baby Cot