BIRTH IN A MOTOR CAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 36, 12 February 1919, Page 4

BIRTH IN A MOTOR CAR

DEATH CHILD. CORONER’S VERDICT OF INATTENTION. An inquest- was held at the Hospital to-day by Mr E. Davidson/ Coroner, concerning the death of the infant male child of Kathleen Kane. Constable Crispin represented the police. Miss Kane was brought into Nelson , yesterday by cab, which contained I two other women and a driver. I Florence Darlington Watson deposed that she was a domestic, and lived at Awarere Murchison. She knew Kathleen Kane, and came to Nelson from Upper Matakitaki yesterday in a car with her. She came in with her to oblige Miss Kane’s sister. Miss Kano was rather weak, but able to walk alright. She had a small dress basket with her when she entered the car, but nothing c-lse except a small handbag. Witness did not hear any sound or cry/ on - the way down to Nelson. Miss Kane did > not tell witness what was the matter, although witness asked her several times. About a month ago she told witness she was going to be operated on for an abscess in the side. Witness did not see anything unusual on the way to Nelson. Ellen Axup, acting matron at the' Hospital, deposed that she met Miss. Kane at the Hospital door, and assisted her from a car into -the pital. She was fairly weak, hut able to walk a little. After putting her to bed witness went to the car and took a ■dress basket belonging to Miss Kane and unpacked it. • It icontained clothes. Miss Kane carried a bundle. under her arm when she entered the Hospital, and put it on to the locker. Witness asked her what it contained, and she said- “Clothes"; but’ on taking off the towel with which the bundle was covered witness discovered the dead body of a male child. Witness .asked her_ how she came with the child, and' elie said the child was born in the car at about 10.45 a.m., just this ‘ side of Murchison." There was a mattress in the car and two bags of hay under neath the mattress. She also said no one in the car knew anvthimr about',

it. ■ • Jamieson, Hospital Surgeon, deposed that on the evening of Febrcary I'lfh, at about six o’clock, be inspected the body of a male- infant, which bad beeh brought into the Hospital about an hour 'previously by a. young woman, Kathleen Kane, who stated that she had been delivered of the child in a motor car on the road from Mafcakitaki to Nelson. The body was wrapped' up in some clothes, and the child had evidently been dead for some hours. The young woman stated that she had not beard it cry. The woman was very- ill now. He had made a post-mortem examination that morning. The dhild was fully and perfectly developed, and of the size and weight corresponding to the average at full term. There were no markjk, of-violence on the body. The navel string had been broken eighteen from the body and not tied: The internal organs--‘were all healthy, and the lungs contained a considerable amount of air ■ in all- portions, 'although they were not fully inflated, -The child had certainly Although the, child had certainly lived and breathed he was ■ unable, to state positively that it was Completely born alive. In the Circumstances of delivery in the motor car it 1 would be possible for an infant to be partly born and to draw breath, arid yet die before a delivery was completed. The •_ cCusC of noU-survivCl .in \ hid! opinion was inattention tat the time of delivery. . The Coroner returned- a verdict that the deceased. caVue -to W - ;death at birth through want of proper attention. < .. t