Grieving mum told baby’s tragic death ‘unexplained’ despite her concerns over ‘wheezing’

A grieving mother said she was made to feel like ‘a paranoid parent’ as she contacted doctors about her baby’s wheezing three weeks before the child died.

But mum-of-five Natasha Shone yesterday heard from consultants who carried out her daughter’s post mortem there was no medical evidence to explain her baby’s death.

An inquest held at Huddersfield Coroner’s Court heard how two-month-old twin Chenai McIlvaney died at her home in Rawthorpe Lane on January 5 this year.

Natasha sobbed as her statement was read, describing how she had taken Chenai to her own bed when she woke early in the morning, leaving her twin sister Sapphire in her own cot.

She said she laid Chenai on her back in the bed and later awoke to find her cold and unresponsive and phoned for an ambulance.

The baby was pronounced dead in hospital.

The inquest heard Ms Shone had visited her GP three weeks earlier and asked the doctor to listen to Chenai’s chest after she said she sounded ‘chesty’.

She told the court: “Going to the doctors I was made to feel like a paranoid parent.

“I have three other children and I knew something was wrong. It’s a mother’s intuition. Both the twins were chesty.”

Consultant paediatric pathologist, Luis Perez, told the inquest that post-mortem examinations confirmed Chenai did not have any virus or infection to explain her death nor any physical injuries.

He concluded there was also no evidence to identify this was a case of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDs) and ruled cause of death could not be ascertained.

He told Ms Shone that because the baby displayed no symptoms there would be no treatment and nothing she or doctors could have done would have changed what had happened.

He added: “Sadly we have instances where babies die.”

Coroner Ms Mary Burke expressed her sympathies to the family before recording an open verdict.

Ms Shone paid tribute on the social media site Facebook with a picture of her daughter saying: “My beautiful baby Chenai, fell asleep on Jan 5th 2013. Mummy’s little angel. Missed but always in my heart xxxxx.”