Hamilton baby's cause of death septicaemia, not gas poisoning, coroner rules

A coroner found the boy developed and died from septicaemia very quickly and it was highly unlikely there were any overt signs of him being acutely unwell. Photo / File

A baby thought to have died from a gas poisoning in fact died from septicaemia, a coroner has found.

The 3-month-old was found unresponsive in his Melville home on the morning of February 17, this year.

Police initially treated his death as unexplained, but the Herald understood at the time that a gas panel heater at the rented property was leaking.

Energy Safety, a division of WorkSafe, carried out an extensive investigation as gas could be smelt when firefighters arrived at the scene.

However, it found while there might have been an odour, it would not lead to asphyxia at the level possible in the home at the time.

A pathologist later found the baby's cause of death to be from a septicaemia, "with an approximate time between onset and death being a matter of hours", Coroner Mike Robb wrote in his findings.

"Tragically, the investigations reveal that [baby] developed and died from septicaemia very quickly with it being highly unlikely that there were any overt signs of him being acutely unwell prior to his falling asleep sometime after midnight.

"There was as a result no realistic possibility for his whānau to intervene to prevent his death."

The boy also had a twin sister. The pair were born about eight weeks early.

In the days before his death, the baby had been more difficult to settle as he and his sister had been experiencing breathing issues. The boy had "more pronounced" issues and a higher temperature.

After speaking with Healthline and a visit to Waikato Hospital, whānau began checking his temperature every two hours and it remained at 37C.

He was placed on his back and supported with a triangle pillow to help him with his breathing.

On the night before his death, whānau continued to have concerns about his breathing, but he was still feeding at about midnight.

A member of the household got up between 1am and 2.30am and could hear the boy making small grunting noises and stopped to listen.

However, there wasn't anything of concern heard.

That morning, one of the children got up and played Playstation near where the boy slept. Robb said there was no evidence the child had any contact with the child.

A short time later, about 7.40am, one of the adults got up and noticed the boy sleeping uncharacteristically face-down in his bassinet.

He was unresponsive and cold to touch and the effects of blood pooling were already established on his face.

Whānau performed CPR until emergency services arrived. He was unable to be revived.

Robb ruled it was likely the boy died sometime earlier and likely developed septicaemia sometime after midnight. Onset and death occurred within a matter of hours, a pathologist found.