'I’ve killed my baby, haven’t I?' Mom's painkiller patch left her 15-month-old dead
Baby Amelia Cooper was napping with her mom in Cornwall, England — and died a few hours later.
Now a judicial investigation into the 15-month-old's death on June 5, 2016, has provided some answers on how and why she died. According to Cornwall Live, there was a hearing at the Bodmin Magistrates' Court that examined the harrowing sequence of events.
Cooper and her mother, Sara Talbot, were napping together when 27-year-old Ben Cooper, the baby's father, noticed the little girl was no longer breathing, according to testimony reported by Cornwall Live. They called emergency services, and Talbot told responding officials that she noticed one of her painkiller patches that contained fentanyl was no longer on her body.
“I’ve killed my baby, haven’t I?" Talbot asked, according to Cornwall Live. The mother also handed first responders a patch that she said "was stuck to (Cooper's) stomach." However, police say they never found that patch that is reponsible for killing Cooper.
The little girl was declared dead at a nearby hospital, according to BBC. High levels of fentanyl were found in her blood.
Authorities say there's "every indication" that Cooper died from the patch — but that there isn't any evidence of foul play.
"There is insufficient evidence to suggest that a third party was involved in this death," detective Simon Miller told BBC, "but investigations were made thoroughly."
Some questions still remain about the girl's death. Emma Carlyon, the coroner who determined Cooper's cause of death, questioned how the patch got attached to the little girl's stomach in the first place, according to The Guardian.
"It is not clear how the patch came to be attached to Amelia, especially as she was wearing a pajama top covering the area," she testified. "It is not clear when, where or how the patch came to be attached to Amelia.”
According to The Guardian, pathologist Debbie Cook said Cooper had enough fentanyl in her blood to kill an adult. She said "when levels become this high there will be a coma" — and added she found no diseases or injuries on Cooper that could have killed the child.
Dr Roger Jenkins, a pediatrician, said there are now more explicit warnings about the risks of these patches, BBC reported.
Ben Cooper told The Guardian that he hopes the decision will allow his family to move forward — even though they miss their girl.
“The outcome today has given us a line we can now draw under and enable us to move forward, but we will never forget her," he said. "She will always be in our hearts, she deserved to live a long and happy life but was so drastically taken from us.”