A JURY inquest is to be held into the death of a premature baby who was found in a car seat and who had suffered positional asphyxia.
Katie Reilly of Kilcross Court, Sandyford, Co Dublin was 6½ months old when she died on January 8th, 2008.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell told Dublin City Coroner’s Court that there would have to be an inquest into the baby’s death with a formal finding by a jury after hearing evidence from the State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy that the death was a sudden unexpected death in infancy with positional asphyxia and prematurity as major factors.
“This is not a Sids (sudden infant death syndrome). It’s a positional asphyxia . . . in a vulnerable infant,” said the coroner.
“This is an unnatural death due to the position the child was in.”
Prof Cassidy told the inquest that the pattern of postmortem lividity on the body (reddish blue discoloration which occurred after death) was consistent with a child in a slumped forward position within a car seat.
She said it appeared the child had slipped down in the car seat, which she had examined and which was intended for a much larger child.
“The position the child would have adopted in that chair if uncorrected would lead to an abnormal posture which could result in fatal positional asphyxia,” she said.
The child’s position in the car seat could have led to hyperflexion of the neck and abnormal kinking of the windpipe which would have reduced the child’s oxygen intake leading to hypoxia, she explained.
She said the child was vulnerable because she was premature.
The baby’s mother, Laura Reilly and father James Kavanagh were in court yesterday.
At the beginning of the hearing Inspector Michael Gibbons told the coroner that there were summary proceedings in the District Court which are completed.
Liam Ó Dálaigh was also in court representing the HSE. The coroner adjourned the inquest for full hearing in October and said that in the meantime he would consider the scope of the inquest.