Baby died four days after leaving hospital
DEVASTATED MUM TELLS INQUEST: “WE JUST CAN’T UNDERSTAND HOW OR WHY THIS HAS HAPPENED”
A DEVOTED mother fought back tears at an inquest as she relived the moment her newborn baby was found dead in a travel cot just four days after being sent home from hospital.
Kelly Hardman was with partner Michael O’Donnell when they woke to find 19-day-old daughter Lilly-May unresponsive beside them in a crib.
Mr O’Donnell attempted to revive the infant but she was pronounced dead an hour later in hospital.
Tests showed Lilly-May, from Wigan, died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - although scientists are not able to establish a cause for the condition.
At the hearing in Bolton Miss Hardman, who has another child aged five, told how Lilly-May had been born at 37 weeks on November 7 last year weighing six pounds 10 ounces.
The inquest heard Lilly May was discharged from Royal Wigan Infirmary on the same day as her birth and ‘was feeding well and regularly but somehow losing weight.’
Her weight fell to 5 pounds 15 ounces and she was taken back to hospital where she went back up to 6 pounds 2 ounces.
Lily-May was then taken home again, where she gained a further four ounces.
But, on advice from a midwife, LillyMay was readmitted to the ward on November 22 due to her jaundice.
She was sent home for a second time after Miss Hardman said she ‘seemed okay’ and there appeared to be no problems over the ensuing three days.
The tragedy happened on November 26 after Lilly-May was put to bed in a travel cot in the lounge because she was not settling upstairs.
Her parents slept on a sofa beside her in the same room.
Miss Hardman said: “She was fed after 2.30 and put back in her cot and she was asleep when I put her there. She was on her back and definitely asleep.”
The hearing was told Mr O’Donnell woke up at a 6.45am and looked into cot but couldn’t see Lily May breathing as he leant over to touch her.
He found her to be ‘lifeless and floppy.’
In a statement Miss Hardman said: “I just couldn’t believe this was happening. We arrived at hospital and were told hospital staff were unable to bring her round and the death was confirmed.
“We just can’t understand how or why this has happened. Nothing we could tell was wrong with Lilly-May. She was fine the night before and this is unbelievable.”
Consultant histopathologist Dr Rajeev Shukla, told the parents: “You did all the right things. You took very good care of the baby. But this is a critical period of life where Sudden Infant Death Syndrome can happen.’’
Recording a verdict of death by natural causes coroner Simon Nelson told Miss Hardman and Mr O’Donnell: “I hope that in time, the advance of scientific knowledge will enable the possibility to prove a more specific cause of death.
“But sadly due to where we’re at, that is the best we can do at this stage.”