SUFFOCATED IN COT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20477, 11 February 1941, Page 4

SUFFOCATED IN COT

CHILD IN HOSPITAL SPECIAL JACKET USED CORONER’S COMMENT (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. "It is only in unfortunate cases such as this that we are able to get things done for others,” said the coroner, Mr. F. K. Hunt, at an inquest into the death of John Blake Bishop, aged five years, who died in the Auckland Hospital on January 31.

“I am going to recommend to the Hospital Board that jackets like the one the child had on be improved by attaching tapes which can be tied to the sides of the cot to prevent the child turning over.”

The child, a son of Mr. K. Bishop, farmer, of Pollock, was admitted to the hospital suffering with eczema. It was explained that the child, when in its cot, had been wearing a jacket fastened at the back on the neck, the child’s arms being inside the jacket to prevent him scratching himself with his hands. The child had been lying on his back and had evidently turned over and been asphyxiated;

A nurse had fed the child at 5.15 o’clock and at 9 p.m. had found him dead in the cot.

Miriam Makgill, nursing sister at the hospital, gave evidence that at the time of the child’s death there were 28 children in the ward. The staff was working short-handed.

Mr. Hunt expressed the opinion that the child should not have been left unattended from 5.15 p.m. to 9 p.m. He asked Dr. Guthrie to make inquiries 'concerning the type of pillow used by the Plunket Society, and the doctor said he would bring the matter before the proper authorities. Mr. Hunt: It is not a part of my duty to place the blame on anybody. It would be wrong for me to do so. I can only find that the child died from asphyxia. I think the attention of the board should be drawn to understaffing at the hospital.