A 22-MONTH-OLD baby died after falling from his cot, an inquest has heard. Dublin City Coroner’s court heard how the baby David Connors’s fall had compounded a prior fall down some stairs less than two weeks previously.
The baby, with a home address at Ballybeg, Co Waterford, died at Temple Street Children’s Hospital, Dublin, on April 5th, 2010. A postmortem carried out by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy found the baby had died from head trauma and necrosis.
The baby’s mother Margaret Connors told the inquest she was in the kitchen on March 13th, 2010, when she heard a loud bang followed by several thuds in the hallway. She went out and saw her baby lying at the bottom of the stairs along with her five-year-old son Gerry jnr, who said the baby had fallen down some steps.
Over the next two weeks Ms Connors brought her baby to a doctor twice and to hospital once saying she had feared he had suffered a head injury as he had been vomiting in his sleep, not wanting to eat or play, rubbing his head a lot and crying.
She was told on each occasion by doctors that the baby was fine and was most likely just suffering from an ear infection.
Less than two weeks later, Ms Connors’s husband Gerry heard a loud thud upstairs. He went up and discovered David had fallen out of his cot, even though the safety barrier was up. He fell into unconsciousness very quickly.
The inquest had heard the baby, a twin, was learning to walk and had been climbing things a lot.
The baby was taken to Temple Street hospital where an MRI scan revealed a bilateral subdural haemorrhage. The baby died 10 days later.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Dr Brian Farrell said: “The baby may well have recovered from the first incident on the stairs. It was the combination of both falls that led to his death,”