Baby is killed by huge overdose when mother’s pain relief patch got stuck to her
A BABY died after her mother’s pain relief patch became stuck to her skin while they slept together, an inquest heard yesterday.
Fifteen-month-old Amelia Cooper was found lifeless in her parents’ bed.
Her mother Sara Talbot, 24, is said to have screamed, ‘I’ve killed my baby, haven’t I?’ when 999 crews arrived.
The patch containing fentanyl opioid – which is stronger than morphine – was thought to have become stuck to the child’s stomach for a ‘period of time’ allowing the drug to get into her body.
The toddler was not breathing when her father Ben Cooper, woke at about 11am.
Miss Talbot, who was prescribed the medication for a number of chronic condicarried tions, had last seen her daughter alive about three hours earlier.
A paramedic who arrived at the family home in St Austell, Cornwall, noticed the mother holding what looked like a fentanyl patch in her hand. She told them: ‘This was stuck to her stomach. She must have rolled on it,’ an inquest in Bodmin heard.
Amelia was transported to Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro via air ambulance, but she was declared dead.
A sticky substance and a mark resembling that of a previously attached plaster was found on her stomach, the coroner was told. Amelia was described as a normal and healthy child before her death. The court heard evidence that she had previously showed an interest in patches but there was none to suggest that Miss Talbot allowed her child to remove them from her. Pathologist Dr Debbie Cook told the hearing: ‘The drug can cause a reduction in breathing, a reduction in blood pressure and in some cases seizures.
‘When levels become high there will be a coma and in high levels such as this case, then it can be fatal.’ Dr Cook told the court that blood samples revealed a level of drug in Amelia which was within the range of an adult who dies of fentanyl toxicity.
She said: ‘To me it suggests that the patch was attached firmly enough to provide transdermal of the drug.’
The patches are used to treat pain for a variety of medical conditions. The court also heard that dozens of children under the age of 12 had died from exposure to fentanyl worldwide, while there were hundreds of recorded incidents in which a patch had become detached.
Coroner Dr Emma Carlyon gave the cause of death as fentanyl toxicity.
But she recorded an open verdict, saying discrepancies in evidence meant the exact reason how the patch became attached to the baby remained a mystery.
Although several fentanyl patches were found inside the property following the tragedy in June 2016, police officers could not find the one that came into contact with Amelia.
She said: ‘How the patch came to be attached to Amelia’s tummy could not be determined. The patch that was attached to Amelia could not be found.
‘There was no evidence that a patch had fallen off at night previously and it is not clear how the patch came to be attached to Amelia.’ Dr Carlyon added: ‘It is not clear how the patch came to be attached to Amelia, especially as she [Miss Talbot] was wearing a pyjama top and the patch was not located.
‘I do find there are some discrepancies and contradictions in the evidence of Miss Talbot and Mr Cooper, in particular about the non-location of the patch, and the evidence from the first responder who believed she was shown the patch by Miss Talbot.’
A criminal investigation was out by police but found there was no evidence to suggest that the patch was deliberately attached to Amelia.
The toddler’s father, Ben Cooper, a 27-year-old lorry driver, said in a statement read by his mother after the inquest: ‘She lit up our lives with her cheeky smile, and her funny little ways - she was adored by us all. The outcome today has given us a line we can now draw under and enable us to move forward, but we will never forget her.
‘She will always be in our hearts, she deserved to live a long and happy life but was so drastically taken from us.’
Grandmother Manisa Cooper, a 49year-old teaching assistant, said: ‘We all adored her, she has left a really big hole in all our lives. ‘Even now after two years it’s really hard.’
Amelia’s mother had previously paid a moving tribute on Facebook to her ‘precious and special, cheeky little princess’.