WHY DID OUR BABY DIE?
15 January 2007
http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk
A Heartbroken couple want to know why their baby
died.An inquest found Dan Curtis and Carrie Hick's two-month-old daughter
Charlotte died of cot death.
A pathologist said the only known risk factor was the fact that her parents and
grandfather, who lived with them, were all smokers.
But the family from Down Ampney deny ever smoking in front of Charlotte or their
other daughters, Josie, three, and Sophia, two.
They say vaccinations given to the baby the week before she died could be
responsible.
Charlotte, who was born on May 13 last year, had a combined jab for diphtheria,
tetanus, whooping cough and polio, along with Hib meningitis and meningitis C
vaccinations.
Carrie, 22, said: "Viral meningitis showed on Charlotte's autopsy but the final
results came through as cot death.
"We're wondering if the vaccinations caused her death. She had them on Tuesday
and she died the following Monday.
"More babies suffer from cot deaths in their first two to four months and that's
when they have these injections."
Carrie and Dan live with Dan's father, David, who added: "It could have been a
bad batch of vaccinations. We don't know what to believe - but they're not going
to tell us."
Carrie found Charlotte dead in her cot at 7.30am on July 17.
She said: "The day before, Charlotte was fine. She'd drunk all her milk and had
her daily feed before I put her to bed at the usual time - between 9pm and 10pm.
"Dan slept downstairs because Josie was in our bed. I found Charlotte the
following morning. When I woke at 7.30am I thought, 'Hang on, she usually wakes
up at 6am for her feed'.
"I noticed she had some blood coming from her nose. She wasn't moving or
breathing and I screamed for Dan.
"We were trying to resuscitate her and I was screaming down the phone to the
ambulance service asking, 'Where are the paramedics?'
"They took 15 minutes to arrive. We kept doing resuscitation but there was no
sign of life.
"Deep down we knew she'd gone but didn't want to believe it.
"When the paramedics came we thought there could still be a chance, but they did
resuscitation for half an hour and then rang the police."
Carrie denied smoking had affected her baby. She said: "If we had a fag we'd go
into the kitchen and open a window or go outside. So did everyone else.
"We didn't want any of the children breathing in smoke and we didn't smoke in
the car if the girls were there. We even had 'no smoking' signs on the door."
Charlotte wasn't planned but her parents were happy with the pregnancy.
Carrie said: "Everything was all right after the birth. She was a healthy,
bubbly baby."
Dan added: "She was quiet and she was always smiling at you."
At the inquest, pathologist Dr Phillip Cox gave the cause of death as sudden
infant death syndrome.
The inquest heard Charlotte had been born normally after a full-term pregnancy
and had been developing well, according to a medical report into her death.
Coroner Alan Crickmore noted that the house was a three-bedroom terrace and it
was a little cramped with three adults and three children living there.
He said: "All the adults were smokers. I understand that when children live in a
house with a smoky atmosphere there is a link between that and cot deaths."