The parents of a six-week-old baby who suddenly died are still seeking answers over the tragedy. Jake and Megan Oakley, from Runcorn, Cheshire, were taking it in turns during the night to watch their tiny daughter Cassidy in September 2021, after Jake underwent post-spinal surgery.
Their lives were sadly changed forever on September 5. Jake said baby Cassidy was placed on a baby pillow on a small footstool surrounded by pillows and blankets before he fell asleep at around 11pm.
But after half an hour he said he was woken by what he described as a "higher force", as Cassidy was no longer there. He told the ECHO: "I can only describe it as a higher force because there was no crying or noise, she just wasn't there. I wondered if Meg had taken her upstairs but then I saw the pink onesie and she'd fallen.
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"She wasn't breathing or responding. I'd been sleeping downstairs because I couldn't get upstairs after surgery, but I ran up to the bedroom and immediately called 999 while I carried out CPR."
Jake said he believed Cassidy had suffered a heart attack which led to her falling from the stool to the floor, and she was rushed to Warrington Hospital where her parents say she became stable. Jake said an initial post-mortem examination showed she suffered a second heart attack, resulting in brain damage.
He added: "We weren't allowed to be with her because there was a police investigation but we waited in the waiting room for five hours before we were told she was stable enough to be transferred to Alder Hey, which is where she died."
Jake said he was not allowed to see the couple's other daughter Esme, aged two, while the investigation was ongoing, which was "one of the worst feelings on the planet". He said: "We didn't know what had happened properly in our minds. When at Alder Hey we were told she had brain damage and were given the decision to turn off her life support, told she wouldn't have that quality of life. She died at 2.40pm on September 9."
Adding to the couple's heartbreak, Jake was still unable to see his other daughter for several days, which he said was "hard for everyone". But when the death was referred to the coroner and an inquest opened, Jake said he was given the report written and signed by an Alder Hey consultant, whose notes upset him by suggesting "overlying" as a likely cause of Cassidy's death.
He told the ECHO: "In this report it states that he cannot give a definitive cause of death and gave one of accidental overlying. He said that there was no sign of asphyxia which would have been expected."
Jake added: "The police took me home and interrogated me with a doll and made me act out what happened so many times and it was videoed. He would have seen that evidence. She's not just a number in a hospital, she was a person. She was our baby. It's like the nightmare is ongoing."
The report, which has been seen by the ECHO, reads that the likely possibility of accidental overlying "can't be excluded with high certainty". It adds: "However, taking into consideration the circumstances in which she was found lifeless, on the balance of probabilities, I believe that Cassidy died as a result of accidental overlying while in dangerous sleeping position (of footstool)."
Alder Hey Children's Hospital told the ECHO they could not comment on individual cases. Meanwhile a date for an inquest is yet to be set.
