As a pediatric emergency physician I have followed with interest your series of articles on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). I want to note that while it is reasonable for physicians and coroners to be concerned about abuse in families where there are multiple deaths, it is vitally important to recognize that SIDS is a real medical entity for which parents are guiltless.
Parents who lose a baby to SIDS spend a lifetime coping with the event; one of the most crucial aspects of their recovery is the realization that they are not at fault.
For the last two years I have been working with parents from the Illinois SIDS Alliance in developing a course designed to help emergency physicians tell parents that their child has died. One of the key teaching points is reassurance from the physician that the parents are blameless. It is devastating to families for any member of the medical staff to imply that they are in any way responsible for the baby’s death. This happens all too frequently, causing years of unnecessary pain.
It is important that the medical staff of emergency departments approach each unexplained infant death as an unavoidable tragedy until evidence proves the contrary. Our primary role is to provide comfort to the survivors of a dead infant and to facilitate the long process of healing. To imply guilt where none exist needlessly compounds tragedy.
