Bib string accident kills baby

A baby died in a tragic accident when he hanged himself by his bib while playing in a cot, an inquest heard today.

When Luke Gooding’s mother went to check on her 22-month-old boy she found him suspended by his bib’s cord, which had become entangled in a window stay.

Lynne Adams, 23, tried to call 999 but her phone was not working and she rushed across the street with her baby in hysterics and a neighbour tried to resuscitate him.

Luton Coroner’s Court heard that Luke was later certified dead at Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

Miss Adams, who has a five-year-old daughter Amelia, had put her son to bed upstairs soon after lunch on April 16 this year.

Detective Sergeant Michael Ellson told the hearing that Miss Adams said her son was ‘‘his normal, happy self’’ but had felt sleepy after giving his mother a cuddle.

He added: ‘‘Luke still had the bib on from lunch time.

‘‘Miss Adams didn’t take it off because she didn’t want to wake him.’’

Miss Adams began to read a book downstairs at their end-of-terrace home in Hockwell Ring, Luton, and did not check on her son because he would normally call out when he woke up.

She was preparing dinner for her partner, sales assistant Antonio Gooding, on his return from work when she decided to wake up the baby.

Det Sgt Ellson added: ‘‘She couldn’t see him in the cot and wondered where he could be.

‘‘She checked her bedroom and then came back and suddenly saw him hanging by the bib. Luke was just hanging there.’’

Investigators believe that Luke might have got his bib caught on the window latch and on his cot when climbing up a mound of toys piled up in the corner.

Pathologist Dr Patricia McKeever gave the cause of death as suspension from the neck.

She found a groove 3mm thick running around the neck from the base of the left ear which was consistent with the baby being hanged by the string of the blue and white bib.

Neighbour Patrick Waite tried to resuscitate the baby when a distraught Miss Adams came to the door.

Det Sgt Ellson said: ‘‘He took the baby from the lady’s arms. She was saying ‘He’s dead’. He put him on the floor where he began to carry out mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the baby.’’

Mr Waite also managed to remove the bib string from around his neck after his partner Patricia Cox was advised by paramedics over the phone to take it off.

Police had initially treated the death as suspicious after initial 999 reports that a baby had ‘‘allegedly tried to strangle itself’’.

But recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner David Morris said: ‘‘There was no record to suggest the couple were anything other than good parents.

‘‘This was just a horrific tragic accident.

‘‘There’s not a great deal you can say. It’s such a huge tragedy.

‘‘My thoughts go out to you and all those concerned.’’