Last night I wrote a letter to the writer of the news article and received
a reply this morning.
Her reply comes first and my letter is below it. 
Apparently she wrote the story based on culled media reports rather than
actually talking to the investigators or reading the police report or doing
any other form of information-gathering.

Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
Glendale, AZ
[log in to unmask]


> [Original Message]
> From: Kim Lyons <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 5/10/2005 4:48:29 AM
> Subject: RE: Suffocation Ruled Accident
>
> Unfortunately, there is often scant detail provided to the media in an
> incident such as this one- and that was the case yesterday. 
> While I think all your questions re the mother's condition are valid, the
> information was just not available from police yesterday. That's not to
say
> they are concealing anything, necessarily; I certainly don't envy a police
> officer who has to fill out the report wherein a child has died,
especially
> in such a tragic situation. 
> The compressed airway determination was made by the Butler County coroner.
> Thank you for reading and for your thoughtful response. 
>
>
> Kim Lyons
> Trib PM/Pittsburgh Tribune Review 
> 503 Martindale Street
> Pittsburgh, PA 15212
> tel: 412-320-7922
> fax: 412-320-7965
>
> *-----Original Message-----
> *From: Phyllis Adamson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> *Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 11:12 PM
> *To: [log in to unmask]
> *Subject: re: Suffocation Ruled Accident
> *
> *Dear Ms. Lyons:
> *
> *I read your article online and have a few questions:
> *
> *The cause of death was ruled to be a compressed airway. Was this
according
> *to an autopsy or on-the scene observation?
> *All too often, a dead baby in the parent's bed is ruled "overlying" by
the
> *police and no autopsy is ever done.
> *It appears that the bed structure and bed linens were not an issue in
this
> *situation.
> *
> *Had mom been drinking? smoking? was she obese? was she taking a
medication
> *that deepened her sleep? was she exhausted? Those of us who support
> *co-sleeping always caution parents to put baby in baby's own bed if any
of
> *these conditions exist. Now it is necessary to ask these same questions
of
> *mother's bed partner, if any. The risk to baby is higher if the bed
partner
> *is not the biological father.
> *
> *If mother has other babies, are all of them alive? My sister, the cop
with
> *many years' experience in family abuse, says one death is SIDS or an
> *accident, the second death is suspicious, and the third is homicide.
> *
> *My biggest Heads Up from your article is your switch in topic from
> *suffocation to SIDS. If you know what caused the death, then by
definition,
> *it is not SIDS. Once the medical community learns what actually causes
> *SIDS, the condition will actually be named and the term SIDS will
> disappear.
> *
> *Note that the other name for SIDS is "cot death" or "crib death" .... as
in
> *NOT sleeping with the parents. The AAP statistic mentioned was that 47%
of
> *deaths (from all causes) involved co-sleeping. So... 53% of deaths (from
> *all causes) involved NOT co-sleeping.
> *
> *Any time you read a study, look at the sponsors, or follow the money. The
> *sponsor of this study is the Consumer Product Safety Commission - the
> *organization that represents or advocates for manufacturers of (among
> *others) infant furniture. If parents co-sleep with their babies, they
don't
> *sell cribs, right? So they create a study that comes to their desired
> *conclusion, that co-sleeping is dangerous, despite hundreds of years of
> *history with co-sleeping vs "cot death".
> *
> *How many of these babies found dead in their parent's bed are ruled
> *"overlying" by the police and no autopsy is ever done? It happens a lot.
> *Too few authority figures consider that this could have been a SIDS death
> *discovered by the parent upon waking up. Without proof from autopsy, not
a
> *presumption based on indeterminate evidence, SIDS will always remain a
> *possibility.
> *
> *I suggest your article lays a big guilt trip on this mother and ignores a
> *dozen questions that, it appears, you didn't ask.
> *
> *And if mothers are mandated in any way, to sit up and stay awake for
every
> *feeding, what's to say she won't fall asleep sitting up and either drop
the
> *baby on the floor or let baby slide down and become wedged between mom's
> *body and the chair?
> *
> *I'm hoping to read a much more detailed report of this sad incident
> *elsewhere in the media.
> *
> *Please ask more questions next time.
> *Thanks.
> *
> *Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
> *Hospital-based Lactation Consultant
> *Glendale, AZ
> *[log in to unmask]
> *
> *
>
>

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