Three Crib Deaths, a Babyminder and Probable Infanticide

Abstract

Two children had died diagnosed as S.I.D.S. in charge of one babyminder. When a third occurred the earlier diagnoses were questioned. Exhumation revealed evidence of facial trauma and large haemorrhages in fixed tissues in one child. With statistical and biochemical support the diagnosis of S.I.D.S. was changed at trial to homicide. The need to look at tissues for bleeding late and in fixed tissue is stressed. The diagnosis of S.I.D.S. needs to be treated critically, particularly when more than one death has occurred. Differentiating death from asphyxia and a S.I.D.S. ‘crib death’ is not easy! Most of the clinical literature relating to crib deaths and S.I.D.S. states that the deaths are not due to suffocation, thus a recent trial where infants previously diagnosed as S.I.D.S. were exhumed and later diagnosed as infanticide by suffocation are of importance to those who deal with unexpected infant deaths.