CHILD’S SUDDEN DEATH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 26 January 1937, Page 9

CHILD’S SUDDEN DEATH

DISTRESSING SEQUEL EVIDENCE AT TAUMARUNUI Distressing and unusual circumstances were revealed at an inquest held before Mr A. S. Laird, coroner, at Taumarunui, into the death of Zena Florence Prescott, aged four years, who died at Taumarunui on sth December. This sudden death of the child caused her mother to have a serious breakdown in health. When the child’s death occurred the mother rushed to a neighbour with the child In her arms, saying, “I killed Bubby.” The child’s head was slightly wet and drowning was suspected. The evidence of Dr Welby Fisher supported the report of Dr W. Gilmour, pathologist, that there was no evidence of drowning nor of death from any form of violence. The enlarged thymus and increased lymphoid tissue showed the condition of status lymphations, which rendered the child liable to sudden death from slight causes. In the doctor’s opinion death was due to shock caused’ by a foreign body in the larynx, deceased being predisposed to sudden death. A verdict was returned accordingly, the coroner attaching no importance to the mother’s remark while unbalanced. There was evidence that the child had vomited and probably she had expired in her mother’s arms and the shock had unsettled her. The coroner expressed the belief that the mother’s action was in no way contributory to the child’s death. The father of the child said her mother was extremely fond of her and would be distracted over her death.