Hundreds grieve with parents of tragic baby who died in family car
HUNDREDS of people last night gathered in support of the young Tipperary parents who lost their only child in a freak accident.
Mourners queued outside the Tipperary town home of Paul and Louise Fogarty to offer their sympathies and solidarity after the death of seven-month-old Chloe.
Chloe died after being found unresponsive in a parked car in Dundrum last Thursday — the hottest day of the year to date.
Despite being rushed to University Hospital Limerick by air ambulance, doctors were unable to save the infant.
A post-mortem examination was conducted last Saturday by the Republic’s State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy.
It involved a number of detailed clinical tests, the full results of which will not be available for some time.
However, sources said that the preliminary indications are that Chloe’s death, as initially feared, was consistent with the effects of overheating or heat stroke. It is suspected the child may have been in the car, parked not far from where her father Paul works at O’Dwyer Steel, for between four and five hours.
She was discovered by her horrified father shortly after 1pm.
Chloe had been scheduled to be dropped to a local creche at 8.30am.
Mr Fogarty is understood to have been distracted by a phone call and didn’t realise his little girl, who was asleep, was still in the parked car.
Chloe’s mother Louise had only recently returned to work from maternity leave and their creche arrangements had just been in place for a matter of days.
Both Paul and Louise are very well-known in the west Tipperary area.
Both families are hugely respected and have strong connections to the worlds of GAA, horse-racing, community development and healthcare.
Mourners gathered at the family’s Tipperary town home where Chloe rested in repose from 5pm to 7pm last night.
Her Mass of the Angels will be held today at 11.30am in the Church of St Nicholas in Solohead.
Locals said the community was doing everything possible to support the devastated parents.
“Everyone is heartbroken — the whole community is shocked by it,” one local said.
Kilfeacle parish priest Fr Pat Coffey said the community was left totally devastated by the tragedy.
“It is just a case of being shellshocked.
“Everybody is feeling for the family,” he said.