Hayden David Lewis Matthews fell ill during a car journey as his father drove his partner to Royal Cornwall Hospital, where a nurse noticed he looked unwell and he later died
A “fit and healthy” 14-month-old baby tragically died after swallowing a coin, an inquest heard.
Little Hayden David Lewis Matthews lived between Truro and Redruth with his separated parents, Kristy Davies and David Matthews. He was in the care of his father for around six weeks before his death.
The inquest heard how Mr Matthews had taken Hayden to collect his new partner and her son and bring them to the hospital as her son had injured his foot. For the first 20 minutes of the car journey he was alert but fell quiet, making his father think the tot had fallen asleep.
Shortly after getting to the hospital, a nurse noticed Hayden was looking unwell in his car seat while they were in the waiting room. She took him into a side room and signalled the emergency buzzer. Emergency staff made attempts to save his life but he died later that evening at Royal Cornwall Hospital.
A post-mortem carried out by a forensic pathologist found Hayden had no signs of physical or psychological illnesses or concerns to explain his death but also found a foreign object inside his oesophagus. This was later found to be a 10p coin believed to have been there for some time due to discolouration. It was deemed unlikely it would have been swallowed or inhaled recently, Cornwall Live reported.
After his death, the Devon and Cornwall Police public protection unit was alerted by the coroner and attended Royal Cornwall Hospital, in Truro. A full and thorough investigation was carried out due to the unexplained death and this revealed nothing suspicious.
Senior coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Andre Cox, as part of his conclusion into the death, said everything he would expect a responsible parent to do had been done for Hayden – including visits to the doctor and treatment. He added if the baby died as a result of swallowing a coin he would expect perforation of the oesophagus and an infection, which did not occur.
He said: “While the finger of suspicion points at the 10p coin, actually what we would expect to be there if the death had resulted from the 10p coin is not there. There isn’t the perforation to lead to the infection and sepsis. Also, we have absolutely no idea when or where or how the coin has got where it was found.”
He said it appeared to be a death from an unascertained cause and recorded an open conclusion into the death.
