CONNECTICUT » APWIRE

Medical Examiners Decry Verdict Holding Day-Care Operator Responsible For

Sids Death

Associated Press

February 02, 2001

FARMINGTON Conn. (AP) - The six doctors at the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner are decrying a jury verdict this week that held a Bolton day-care provider liable for the death of a baby who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, who has served as the state’s chief medical examiner for 18 years, said he and his staff have never before joined together to take a stand on a public issue, but felt compelled in this case.

“The cause of SIDS is unknown. Its occurrence is unpredictable and unpreventable,” the six doctors wrote Thursday in a letter to the Hartford Courant. “Until we find the cause or at least find a reliable physical or chemical marker, we cannot with reasonable medical probability assign responsibility.”

A Rockville Superior Court jury Tuesday found Barbara Horne of Bolton liable for the death of 2-month-old Shelby LePage, who died of SIDS in Horne’s care two years ago.

Horne had permitted the baby to sleep on her stomach, contrary to instructions from Shelby’s mother’s that the child sleep only in her portable car seat or in a baby swing Horne had at her home. Shelby died on the second day she was in Horne’s care. The jury awarded the LePage family $800,000.

Carver and his associates -Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Edward T.  McDonough and Drs. Malka Shah, Arkady Katsnelson, Ira Kanfer and Thomas Gilchrist - said in the letter that they all support the “Back to Sleep” campaign that says babies who sleep on their backs are at a reduced risk of SIDS.

“But the fact still remains that almost all of the children who sleep on their stomachs, still a large number, will survive, and a few who sleep on their backs will suffer SIDS,” the doctors wrote.

Kanfer, who performed the autopsy on Shelby LePage and testified at the trial, said Thursday that he fears the verdict’s fallout will be seen in the number of licensed day care providers who now refuse to take infants for liability reasons.

“This is a really big problem,” Kanfer said. He added that the woman who cares for his 3-year-old daughter was “hysterical” over the plight of Horne.

“It’s hard enough to get good day care as it is,” he said. “SIDS is a fancy way of saying we don’t know what killed the baby.”

AP-ES-02-02-01 0300EST

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