CHILD’S SUDDEN DEATH

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 303, 9 December 1929, Page 9

CHILD’S SUDDEN DEATH

INQUEST LN HASTINGS. An inquest was held concerning the death of the child, John Edward King, aged 20 months, who was found dead m his cot on Saturday morning m Hastings. Mr. Cecil R. Thornton acted as coroner, and Messrs. J. S. Steedmail, ’ Meyrick, Alexander Rosenberg, and H. K. Osborn were sworn as a jury. Senior-Sergeant Dempsey conducted the proceedings. Ivy Adeline King, mother of the infant, gave evidence covering the details published in the “Tribune” on Saturday. She lived with her mother, Mrs. Harrison, in Stanley street. When she discovered the child dead his head was uncovered. He had never been sick since he was born He was cutting his teeth, but ho never had a convulsive fit. David A. Bathgate, medical practitioner, deposed he found that tho child had been dead about six hours when he arrived. There were no signs of external violence or of vomiting. The mother said the child was teething. The clenched hands showed that a sudden pain had been felt at the moment of death. He could not say what the cause of death might be. There was nothing to disclose the manner of death externally. If the child died of convulsion, a post mortem examination would only show death from suffocation. A verdict was returned that, in accord with tho medical opinion, death was due to suffocation resulting from a possible convulsive fit.