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Toddler’s death still a mystery
GRIEVING parents are coming to terms with the mystery death of their healthy baby after five days in St Mary’s Hospital.
Baby Isabelle Goodkind was born in the Winnicot ward of the Paddington hospital on March 1, an inquest at Westminster Coroner’s court heard yesterday (Thursday).
The hospital’s midwife described her as in good health and colour.
But after baby Isabelle mysteriously collapsed an hour later consultants advised the family that her condition was “incompatible with life”.
A pathologist recorded the five-day-old died from systematic hypoxia – a shortage of oxygen to the body – but was unable to say what had caused the condition.
A senior doctor at Great Ormond Street admitted she had no idea why the healthy baby suddenly collapsed.
Dr Marion Malore, a paediatrics specialist at the hospital, told the court: “We are unable to establish the cause of the collapse. There were no problems with heart, lungs, infection or any inherited disease. It is unusual – we were expecting to find heart disease but we could not find anything.”
She added: “I know how difficult it is to cope when the cause of death is unclear – I wish I could help but I cannot.”
Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said mother Susanne Goodkind, from Mill Hill, Barnet had asked the hospital’s midwife after 20 minutes why the baby she had stopped taking milk.
She was told it was a normal part of the process but forty minutes later she went blue and was rushed into intensive care after resuscitation.
“A crash team was called,” said coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe.
After five days doctors advised the family to switch off the life support machine because of damage to the baby’s brain, said Dr Radcliffe.
The family agreed, the inquest heard.
St Mary’s pathologist Dr Paul Cockcroft’s report stated: “Isabella did not recover from her original collapse. There were no signs of inherited metabolic. Her chromosomes, heart and lungs were normal and there were no signs of infection. The MRI scan showed damage to her brain following the seizure and she had become unable to breathe.
“She died from systematic hypoxia but the cause of the original collapse was unknown.”
Dr Radcliffe said: “There is very little we can say in a case like this. It is very tragic – especially in a first pregnancy. It is likely the baby just could not adapt to life outside the womb.
“I therefore record Isabelle Goodkind died of natural causes.” |
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