Baby suffocated when trapped by high chair harness

A BABY boy suffocated when he was trapped upside-down in his high chair while his mother washed dishes, an inquest was told yesterday.

Shea Patrick Ritchie, one, was found dangling in his safety harness by his distraught mother Roisin seconds after she had left the room at her house in Annahugh Park, Loughgall, Co Armagh on July 29, 2005.

The inquest was being held yesterday in Armagh and learned that the infant had unclipped his safety straps.

Deputy coroner Suzanne Anderson said: “When she [Roisin] returned a short time later she found that Shea Patrick had unclipped the safety straps of his high chair and had slipped down beneath the tray.

“The straps were caught under his armpits.”

Ms Ritchie clutched a large cuddly bear and struggled to control her emotions during the half-hour hearing yesterday.

The emergency services were called to the scene by a neighbour who Ms Ritchie had alerted.

Ambulance technician Sean Gordon said the baby’s mother was one of the most hysterical relatives he had seen during a long career in the service.“I have seen a lot of distressed people but that was the worst,” he said. “When we arrived a woman was shouting ‘save my baby, save my baby’, she was pulling my arm, urging me to go with her.”

The baby was at the next-door house belonging to Vincent Toner who was attempting to resuscitate the child.

He described answering the door to the baby’s mother, a care assistant, and added: “She had the child in her arms and his head was lying back and she just kept saying, ‘my baby’.

“She was in hysterics, she was completely out of control.”

Ms Ritchie told police her child had begun unclipping the car seatbelt a short period of time before the accident and added that she had considered bringing him into the kitchen with her when she cleared up the dinner plates.

She added that he didn’t respond to her when she discovered him dangling and said her concern became worse as time went on.

A pathologist in Belfast found that the pressure on his chest while trapped under the tray could have caused the suffocation.

The Coroner ruled that death was due to postural asphyxia.