A matter of urgency

A matter of urgency

Scripps Howard News Service: There is a reason Florida medical examiners, as a Scripps Howard News Service investigation found, find suffocation as the cause of sudden infant death 50 percent more often than their counterparts in other jurisdictions: They do a better job of investigating.

And now the state’s Child Abuse Death Review Committee, citing that same investigation, has recommended that the state take steps to improve the quality and consistency of its child-death investigations even further.

The principal recommendation is that police investigators and the state’s 24 medical examiners adopt a standardized protocol to investigate sudden infant deaths like the extensive death-scene medical questionnaire designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The form not only allows the pathologists to begin the autopsy with a wealth of detail often overlooked in the chaos surrounding a baby’s death, but it allows for the development of extensive databases that the CDC says are necessary to prevent further deaths.

Scripps Howard reporters Lee Bowman and Thomas Hargrove found that most unexplained infant deaths were most likely the result of accidental — and preventable — suffocation. But quite often, due to patchwork investigations, poor record keeping and a lack of follow-up, infant deaths are attributed to such vague and noncommittal diagnoses as SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The Florida review panel’s recommendations should be viewed with some urgency. “... Our members are convinced that opportunities to prevent further deaths are being lost because we’re not getting complete information on how many babies are dying in these circumstances,” says Maj. Connie Shingledecker, chair of the committee and an officer in the Manatee County sheriff’s office.

The solution to the mystery of SIDS may be as simple as thorough investigations, sound data and public education.