Dead baby had cocaine, painkillers and antidepressants in her stomach

Tragedy: The baby, which was born prematurely and cared for at Alder Hey Hospital, had traces of cocaine in her stomach

The child was just six-months-old when she died in the care of her drug taking parents



A tragic baby was found to have cocaine, painkillers and antidepressants in her stomach after she died in the care of her drug taking parents.

The six-month-old tot died suddenly in 2013 after being allowed to go home with her parents, following a lengthy stay in hospital after being born prematurely.

It is not known how the drugs got into the baby's stomach and, according to a report, they were not linked to her death.

The review, by the Liverpool Safeguarding Children Board, called for a host of “lessons to be learned” after agencies fell short in sharing information that could have highlighted the baby’s vulnerability.

But the independent report also said it was impossible to tell if the death of baby Mary – not her real name – could have been avoided.

According to the Liverpool Echo , chairman Howard Cooper said: “Predicting the likelihood of such an outcome for a vulnerable baby is difficult to achieve with any meaningful degree of accuracy.

“It cannot be inferred that child Mary’s death was preventable, but there are lessons to be learned for all the agencies involved with this family about multi-agency working.”

Mary was the youngest child in a family of four, born to a mum aged 30 and dad aged 33. At the time of her death, her siblings were aged one, eight and 10.

She was born into a backdrop of concerns of over domestic violence, alcohol abuse and child neglect.

Both parents were known to social services, and the family came to the attention of the children’s social care unit, Careline, five times between 2008 and 2012.

Her siblings’ school raised concerns that the two eldest children were truant, overweight and left to look after their baby brother, while their parents stayed in bed.

Mary was born 12 weeks early at Alder Hey in January 2013 and diagnosed with a number of medical conditions, including a heart murmur.

She was kept in hospital for three months during which time there were “several consecutive days” in which she had no contact with her parents.

After Mary was discharged into her parents’ care, a number of community nurse follow-up visits were scheduled.

The nurse visited three times in one week but was unable to get access. While a fourth visit was successful, later appointments were unsuccessful.

A day before Mary died, in July 2013, a health visitor went to the home but was stalled at the doorstep.

A post-mortem revealed the presence “at very low levels” of cocaine, tramadol and mirtazapine [an antidepressant] in her stomach contents.

Police found empty beer cans, drugs and a syringe on the premises and her mum admitted to the police that she used cocaine and cannabis in the home.

Because of a lack of evidence, a coroner ruled the cause of Mary’s death was “unascertained”. The traces of drugs, which could have come from the environment or through resuscitation attempts, were not considered to have directly led to her death.

The report said: “Whilst agencies had some concerns about the older children, they generally worked to single rather than multi-agency agendas and processes.

"There was some evidence of good informal liaisons such as between the school and the education welfare officer, or the school and school nurse, but generally the level of inter-agency communication required to support a family with four children was not achieved.

"Child Mary was a vulnerable child and a discussion between health professionals may well have highlighted important information about [the mother’s] history of not engaging with health services in respect of her children and the shared information may have led to further action.”

The death of baby Mary was described as “extremely sad and tragic” by the chair of Liverpool’s safeguarding board.

Howard Cooper said a number of recommendations had been made in the wake of the tot’s death to improve working relationships between agencies tasked with supporting vulnerable children and their families.

The 10 findings made by the board included an assessment that the follow-up services by Mary’s hospital and community health services were “ineffective” for a vulnerable baby in the care of parents with a “very poor history of co-operation”.

The panel also criticised the lack of a multi-agency system for monitoring missed medical appointments, resulting “potentially significant” signs of neglect being missed.