THE parents of a "happy, cheerful" nine-month-old have relived the nightmare of her death from so-called sudden infant death syndrome.
An inquest heard how when Thomas Wilson had last settled his daughter, Zoe, down, she was her normal smiling self. An hour later he discovered her lifeless body in her crib.
The coroner and a paediatric pathologist confirmed that until medical science could fully understand cot death, there could be no guaranteed way of preventing it.
Mr Wilson, of Perry Street, Darwen, told the inquest how he and his partner, Carrol Haworth, decided that he would stay at home and look after Zoe, when he was made redundant shortly before her birth.
The arrangement worked well and, apart from a slight defect in her hip joints, Zoe was a perfectly normal happy baby.
He told of the last day of her short life when, after a walk in the park in the morning, the family caught a train to Bolton, where they planned to take Zoe to a water fun centre, but it was closed.
Instead, they walked round the shops and when Zoe needed feeding they went into a pub.
"We came straight out because it was too smoky for Zoe," said Miss Haworth.
That evening, Mr Wilson took his daughter to Princess Field, in Darwen. "She had a little play on the grass, I remember her smiling," he recalled.
At 2.30am Zoe woke "happy and smiling, her normal self," said Mr Wilson. He said he settled her back down but when he checked on her about 4am she was white and lifeless.
Dr Melanie Newbold, of the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, who carried out a post mortem examination said that despite exhaustive tests she could find absolutely no reason for Zoe's death.
"We used to call this sudden infant death syndrome, but some coroners are turning away from that and saying the cause of death is unascertained because that is a more honest reflection of the situation.
"We just do not know what caused Zoe's death," said Dr Newbold, who gave the cause of death as unascertained.
Recording a verdict of natural causes, deputy coroner Carolyn Singleton, said she could not begin to comprehend the grief Zoe's family must feel.
"To come out of the inquest still not knowing why Zoe died will be the ultimate frustration for all of you," she said.
"I hope that in due course medical science will provide us with some answers as to why babies can die for no apparent reason, as Zoe has."
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