Baby choked to death after pram collapse, inquest told

A five-month-old baby choked to death after the pram he was sleeping in partially collapsed, an inquest heard today.

Gerard Buckley, the father of little Brendan Paul, told how the accident happened after he had brought the baby home from Germany for a short visit to relatives and to organise his Christening.

The inquest heard that the baby died tragically on May 3, 2004 after a support on the pram he was sleeping in at his grandparents’ house at Suncroft Avenue in Dublin’s Portmarnock had collapsed.

The distraught father told the court what he saw when he opened his bedroom door at around 4am that day to check on baby Brendan. He said: “He was hanging upside down out of the front of the pram. His lips were blue and his face dark.”

The Buckley family immediately began attempts to resuscitate the baby, and he was rushed to Temple Street Children’s Hospital. However, he was pronounced dead a short time later.

The post mortem report showed the baby died from asphyxia due to compression of the neck from the collapse of the pram.

Mr Buckley, who was seated beside his partner Joanne O’Rourke, who is originally from England, told the court that his baby, who was born on November 30, 2003 in Germany, had been a “normal, perfect, healthy baby“.

The inquest heard that the baby had been sleeping in a old fashioned ’Silver Cross Classic’ pram.

Mary Buckley, the baby’s grandmother, said she borrowed the sturdy pram from a friend for the visit.

The baby had been put to bed in the pram each night as he would not settle in a travel cot.

Det Sgt Gerald Feeney from Malahide Station told the inquest that the pram was in good condition, and had been purchased in 1996 before being passed on between several mothers. He told the court that the woman who bought it originally had raised three children in it without any incident.

However, Gda Feeney said that a “stabilising bar” on the base of the pram cradle did not seem to be in position. He said the plastic clips holding it in place were worn and it may have moved.

The court heard that Gda Noel Trainer, a scenes of crime examiner, had found that the front of the pram had tilted downwards by over three inches as the support bar did not seem to be in place.

Gda Feeney said the baby had moved down towards the front of the pram and flipped over, becoming trapped in the pram’s hood.

He said: “The stabilising bar may have come disconnected and allowed the top of the pram to tilt down.”

However, the grandparents said they had not heard a sound on the baby monitor.

Gda Feeney said: “I feel the baby was constricted as a result of the compression. I feel the baby made no noise.”

The court heard that Mr Buckley’s parents had been minding the baby the night he died, as Mr Buckley had been out meeting friends that evening.

He had found the baby after he returned to that house in the early hours of May 3. Mr Buckley had given a baby monitor to his parents before he headed out that night.

His sister, Eimear, said she heard the baby cry at around 9.30pm and checked on him. She said there had been nothing wrong and he went back to sleep.

The coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, said he would be writing to the new UK company which had taken over the manufacture of Silver Cross prams, the distributors and the standards authority to inform them of the tragic death.

Dr Farrell, who passed a verdict of accidental death, said he would also like to bring it the potential danger to the attention of parents to prevent further tragedies.