S’pore Baby Suffocates After Falling Into Gap Between Bed & Wall, Death Ruled A Misadventure

4-Month-Old Baby Dies From Asphyxiation, Fell Into Gap Between Bed & Wall

A four-month-old baby girl in Singapore has died from asphyxiation while asleep.

She had fallen into a gap between the bed and the wall when co-sleeping with her mother on their queen-sized bed.

According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), the state coroner has ruled the infant’s death a misadventure.

He also advised parents to adopt safe sleeping practices to prevent similar accidents from happening.

Baby usually sleeps on mattress placed on parent’s bed

At the time of the incident, the baby was just learning how to flip.

However, her parents said that she could not flip continuously or hold up her head.

The baby typically slept on a mattress placed on her parents’ bed, which was placed in a corner of the room with walls on the left side and the head.

Between the side of the bed and the wall was a gap, which was roughly 22cm wide and 25cm deep, reported CNA.

The baby used to sleep on a mattress beside the gap until she was about two months old. However, her mother moved it to prevent the baby from falling into the gap.

As an extra precaution, the mother also placed a pillow on the floor below the gap in case the child should fall in.

Baby was drinking milk when mother fell asleep

From the evening of 19 Dec 2021 to the early morning of 20 Dec 2021, the mother was on a video call with the baby’s father as he was at work.

The mother and baby slept while the video call was still on.

At around 2am or 3am, the father checked the video feed, which showed that the baby was still on her mattress.

She was swaddled and facing upwards.

The father then fell asleep at his workplace at around 4am.

At around 5am, the baby cried and woke her mother up, The Straits Times (ST) reported.

After making her daughter a bottle of milk, the mother went back to sleep while leaving her baby to drink from the bottle herself.

Mother woke to find baby stuck in gap between the bed & wall

About an hour later, the mother woke to find that the baby was not on her mattress.

Instead, she saw the child’s legs sticking out from the gap, pointing upwards.

She looked into the gap to see her baby facing the bed and lifted the infant out, only to find her unresponsive, with her eyes closed and dried milk coming out from her nose.

The mother cried for help and a tenant who was living with them came to see what happened.

He noticed that the baby was cold and hit her back to make sure she was not choking on anything.

Baby died from positional asphyxia after falling into gap between bed & wall

The tenant performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation while paramedics were on the way.

At 6.30am, an ambulance crew arrived and rushed the baby to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

However, it was too late and the baby was pronounced dead at 7.44am.

An autopsy later showed that the baby died of positional asphyxia.

Positional asphyxia occurs when a person cannot breathe due to their position blocking their airways.

Noting that there is a higher risk of a baby suffocating when co-sleeping with a parent, State Coroner Adam Nakhoda strongly recommended keeping to safe sleep practices.

This would reduce the chances of infants dying from positional asphyxia.

Guidelines for safe sleep

To prevent similar incidents, parents of infants should follow the following safe sleep guidelines shared in court by Dr Nirmal Kavalloor Visruthan, senior consultant of neonatology at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital:

• Let the baby sleep alone in a separate crib in the same room as the parents for the first six months to a year
• Position the baby to sleep on their back
• Remove secretions and milk if the baby is sleeping on their back as they might choke
• Sleep surface should be firm, flat, and non-inclined
• Cribs should be safety-approved, with a tight-fitting mattress
• No other bedding or objects should be in the crib to prevent smothering
• There should be no gaps between the mattress and the wall of the sleeping area

We convey our sincerest condolences to the family of the baby and hope they will get the support they need to get through this difficult time.

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Featured image adapted from Kendra Wesley on Unsplash, for illustration purposes only.