An inquest has been unable to find the cause of death of a healthy baby from Bury.
Bobby Joe McKenzie was aged just two-months-old when he died at his parents’ house on High Street in Walshaw on April 24, 2021.
Rochdale Coroners Court heard how his parents, Laura McKenzie and Craig Bland, had put him to bed between them in their double bed on the night of April 23 last year.
Upon waking at around 5.30am, Ms McKenzie found Bobby face down in the bed and not breathing.
She woke Craig and called 999 while he attempted to resuscitate him.
Paramedics arrived at around 5.45am, but pronounced him dead just after 6am.
Ms McKenzie said: “He was really restless after having his immunisation injections.
“If he was waking up in the night, I’d lay on my back and we’d have him on my chest.”
Speaking about the night before Bobby’s death, she said: “We gave him his milk and took him up, but he was still crying, so we put him back in the bed to get him to sleep.”
Pathologist, Dr Philip Lumb, carried out Bobby’s postmortem investigation.
He said: “There were no ongoing health issues, medication or treatment.”
The pathologist recorded Bobby’s cause of death as unascertained.
He said: “Additional tests failed to provide a positive cause of death.”
Dr Lumb gave two possible ways Bobby could have died.
The first is sudden infant death syndrome, also known as cot death, which is usually deduced as the cause when all other potential causes have been ruled out.
Sudden infant death syndrome is the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby.
Read more: Inquest opens into death of 'much-loved' Bury woman who was hit by van
The other potential cause of death is overlay, which happens when babies sleep in beds with other people.
Death can happen from if babies end up under the covers, leading them to breathe in the warm air and overheat, or when they end up underneath someone else.
Greater Manchester Police detective inspector Simon Edgington led the investigation into Bobby’s death.
He found that there was no third party involvement in his death or any suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident.
Area coroner for North Manchester, Catherine McKenna, accepted the pathologist’s findings.
Giving a narrative conclusion, the coroner also accepted the two potential causes of Bobby’s death given by the pathologist.
She said: “Pathologist Dr Lumb could find no positive cause of death. It could be a natural event, some form of infant death syndrome, or due to cosleeping, which may have been related to asphyxiation or overlay.
“One of those is the likely cause of death.”
Coroner McKenna finished by offering her condolences to the family
She added: “I can’t imagine how hard it must be to lose a child in this way.
“I hope this will provide you with some closure.”
If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at zach.harrison@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @zachhjourno.
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