Co-sleeping and suffocation

Excerpt

As death is a functional event, forensic pathologists continue to be challenged by deaths with few or no anatomic findings. Toxicologists, and most-recently, molecular biologists have improved our diagnostic acumen, but certain sudden infant deaths continue to bewitch us. These deaths have occurred for millennia and even include the biblical judgment of Solomon: “this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it” (Kings 3,19). For decades the pendulum of the explanation of these deaths has swung from asphyxia to various diseases or syndromes. A litany of diseases, and even normal anatomic findings (e.g., an “enlarged” thymus), have littered the certification landscape. Davis noted that the need for circumstantial details bears an inverse relationship to the extent of disease revealed by autopsy [1]. With a thorough investigation, many of these can be properly certified, but not all [2, 3]. …