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BABY'S DEATH WAS "TRAGIC ACCIDENT"
A CORONER has described the death of a baby girl who suffocated in her parents' bed as a tragic accident.
Etalia Johnson was less than a month old when she died at her home in Layden Drive, Scawsby, last month.
The Doncaster inquest heard that Etalia's parents, Mark and Marianne, normally put the baby to sleep in a crib after a feed but in the hours before her death, she had been placed in bed with them.
Coroner Stanley Hooper, going over evidence given at a previous hearing, said Mr Johnson had told him he had laid Etalia on her back on the duvet wrapped in a blanket.
When Mrs Johnson woke in the morning, she rolled over and felt something against her leg.
"She realised that it was Etalia who had slid down the bed and who was by her mother's thigh. She said that Etalia was underneath the duvet," added Mr Hooper.
Trackman Mr Johnson and his wife tried to resuscitate their daughter but their attempts failed.
Ronald Kaschula, interim consultant paediatric pathologist at Sheffield Children's Hospital, who carried out a post mortem on Etalia, said the cause of the baby's death was suffocation.
He confirmed that Etalia had died in the bed, although her death was certified later at Doncaster Royal Infirmary.
He added that Etalia was also found to have been suffering from the very early stages of pneumonia which could have contributed to her death but would not have caused it.
Mr Hooper said evidence pointed to the fact that Etalia had slipped down the bed and suffocated. He recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Expressing his sympathy to Etalia's parents, he commented: "This is a most frightful tragic accident."
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Weather for Doncaster
Sunday 19 May 2013
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