14 Month Old Little Girl Dies Suddenly

[chrissa1]

Very, very sadly an old friend of my son suffered the tragic loss of his 14 month old daughter, yesterday.

She had been sick the night before and then had a restless nap the next morning. Mid morning her daddy was just rocking her to get her to sleep and she was very much herself. Chatting and pinching him. She suddenly let out a scream and hiccuped, coughing up some bile or blood and then she just stopped breathing.

He gave her CPR for half an hour until the ambulance arrived but was pronounced dead at the hospital.

It’s heartbreaking, but does anyone know what might have happened?

[jno]

oh, how terrible. Sorry I can't offer any advice, but please accept my sympathy.

[Mamyalynne]

Such heartbreak for them to bear, I won't even venture to guess a cause.

[Rosetta]

How terrible, the parents must be in bits. I doubt you will get an answer here to what happened or why. Its likely to be down to a post mortem

[chrissa1]

Maybe sqad might have an idea. There is going to be a post-mortem, apparently. :’(

[Theland]

Shockingly sad!

[wolf63]

For it to happen so suddenly will, I think, be harder for them to deal with.

A truly awful thing to happen.

[Baldric]

Just an opinion but I don't think speculating about the cause is right.

[Calicogirl]

Oh Chrissa how absolutely heartbreaking, so very sorry x

[chrissa1]

I wouldn’t say I was speculating, Baldric. Just looking for a cogent reason why such an awful thing has happened.

[Baldric]

And once the PM has taken place I'm sure you will get one.

[chrissa1]

I agree, Baldric. I just wanted to know if any of our doctors could give an explanation.

[lady-janine]

so sorry to read this. how terrible and sad for such a thing to happen.

[anneasquith]

So tragic chrissa :+(

[Sqad]

Baldric...that is how we learn in medicine , by speculating, by listening to what happens, discussing likely diagnosis and finding out who is correct in the diagnosis, at post mortem. An important part of learning and in medicine known as Clinico-Pathological Conference.
Chrissa, knows this quite well and that is all she is asking for.....informed ideas.....and that is what she deserves.

In a 14 month old baby who was well up until 24 hours before death is not going to be caused by a common condition.

However, there is a mention of her being sick the night before and if that was associated with retching then we may well have a clue. There is a condition known as Mallory-Weiss Syndrome, where the stomach lining tears during vomiting and the patient ( usually an adult) vomits up blood which can be torrential and life threatening.
In a baby one also has to consider congenital malformations ( abnormal blood vessels and tumours.
These are just suggestions that come to mind, but i would be very interested in the post mortem findings.

[LadyCG]

Perhaps an aneurysm. Rare in infants but carries a high mortality rate.

How desperately sad. The poor family :-(

[chrissa1]

Thank you sqad. I will let you know when the cause is revealed.