A THREE-MONTH-OLD baby, who was discovered lying unresponsive in bed by his mother's partner, died of a brain injury due to a trauma of an undetermined nature, an inquest has heard.
Baby Lorcan Patrick Rooney of The Ballagh Grove, Ballagh, Co Wexford, died at Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin, on January 25th, 2007.
Two days earlier, he had been rushed to Wexford General Hospital when John Rooney woke to find he was unable to wake him, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard.
When Mr Rooney, who was sleeping beside the infant, awoke at approximately 10.30am on the morning of January 23rd, he panicked and shook the baby to try to get a response from him.
"When I realised Lorcan wasn't breathing I picked him up. I did shake him because I noticed there was no movement. I don't recall whether it was a hard shake," he told the coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, when the inquest opened last week.
Mr Rooney also administered CPR and contacted the emergency services.
The baby's mother, Anne Marie Smith, had left the family home an hour earlier to go shopping. Everything was then fine with the child, although she had noted when she got up that morning that he was quieter than usual.
Upon arrival at Wexford General Hospital, he was unresponsive and not breathing.
There were no signs of external injuries, but an X-ray revealed a subdural haemorrhage and retinal haemorrhages. He was urgently transferred to the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, where he died at the intensive care unit two days later.
A postmortem by State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy found that the baby died of a brain injury (hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy) due to brain haemorrhage (subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhage) with retinal haemorrhage.
Dr Farrell told the inquest that the precise cause of the trauma had not been established.
He said the inquest had eliminated certain illnesses that could cause the "complex of findings" of subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhages with retinal haemorrhages present in this case.
Such illnesses included birth injuries, congenital defects, blood clotting-related problems, sepsis, vascular abnormalities, metabolic disorders and hyponatremia.
The symptoms identified, of subdural haemorrhage and retinal haemorrhage, were associated with shaken baby syndrome, he noted.
"Whether that provides an explanation, we don't know," said Dr Farrell.
The baby also had a history of apnoeic attacks or breath-holding attacks, one of which necessitated an admission to hospital on January 16th and, "if that had occurred on the 23rd, that may or may not provide an explanation", he added.
A jury of three women and three men returned an open verdict under Dr Farrell's direction.
Gardaí instigated a criminal investigation following the incident and a file was prepared and submitted to the DPP for directions, Sgt Mick Morrissey told the inquest last week.
A previous hearing for mention of the inquest heard that the DPP had directed no prosecutions in the case.