SMITH: TRAGIC BABY GIRL DIED IN SLEEP

A distraught mother told today (Thurs) of the tragic moment she discovered her baby daughter had died suddenly in her sleep.

Joanne Smith was woken by banging on her bedroom door as her ‘hysterical’ nanny cradled the lifeless body of two-month-old Kitty, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard.

The pair made desperate attempts to resuscitate the child and were so shaken they were unable to open the front door as paramedics arrived at the scene minutes later.

Kitty was taken to hospital and formally pronounced dead at 6.27am on May 9 this year, having suffered heart failure.

The inquest heard that Kitty’s father, asset manager David Smith, had flown to New York the previous day.

Mrs Smith was at the family home in (52) Cloncurry Street, Fulham, with the family nanny Paulette Cobham.

Mrs Smith said she had been dozing at around 5.30am in the morning when she heard a knock on the door from Ms Cobham.

‘I was lying on my side trying to figure out how much time I had before I had to get up again,’ she said.

‘Then I heard this knock on my door, and there was a second, very gentle knock.

‘I opened the door to see Paulette holding Kitty in her arms, clearly distressed.

‘She’s shaking and she’s sobbing.

‘It was the most shocking thing ever – I remember her screaming “no! no!”

‘It was immediately obvious that something horrific had happened.’

Ms Cobham, who had woken to use the toilet, had gone to check on Kitty and found she had stopped breathing and was cold to the touch in her cot.

Pathologist Dr Josephine Wyatt-Ashmead told the inquest that baby Kitty had succumbed to a viral infection.

She said other family members had shown flu-like symptoms, but she had appeared healthy.

It was ‘possible’ Kitty had suffered a seizure shortly before her death, said the doctor.

Kitty had been born by cesarean section on March 9 this year, weighing in at 6lb 6oz (2.9kg).

She had been diagnosed with the brain condition cortical dysplasia (CORR), which causes epilepsy-like symptoms including seizures.

Dr Wyatt-Ashmead said the condition would have made her ‘more vulnerable to things like the viral infection.’

Asked by coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox if Kitty could have been saved, she replied: ‘No ma’am, she was irretrievable.

‘She went very quickly – painlessly, I think.  I think she just fell asleep, and it happened in her sleep.

‘I don’t think anyone would have been able to bring her back, not without severe brain damage.’

Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, Dr Wilcox said Kitty had died from a combination of brain swelling and congestive heart failure.

She said: ‘It is possible that Kitty, because of the systemic infection which was evident right throughout her body, had a seizure which caused her heart to stop.

‘The pathologist stated in her expert opinion that, had it been noted at the time that Kitty was in extremis, and was just about to die, intervention at that point would not have saved her life.

‘I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Kitty Smith died as a result of natural causes.’

Turning to the parents, she added: ‘I cannot imagine what it must have been like for you.

‘I only hope that this inquiry has answered some questions you may have had.’

verdict: death by natural causes

ends