THE heart wrenching moments leading up to the tragic death of 21-month-old Singleton toddler Jordan William Thompson have been recounted in a Sydney District Court.
A former nurse, Jodie Frost, was the first health care professional to come to the aid of Bernice Swales as she carried her lifeless toddler through the doors of Singleton Hospital nearly 20 years ago.
"I saw a woman climbing up and over the garden bed with a naked infant in her arms," Ms Frost said.
"I saw that the baby was quite pale and very floppy, like a rag doll, and he had blue lips.
"I put my arms out to the mother to take the baby but she was screaming and crying and just so upset it seemed she couldn't hear me."
The little boy was carried into casualty where staff attempted to resuscitate him while his mother stood nearby.
'Broken mum'
Ms Swales had left her son with her then-boyfriend, Cecil Patrick Kennedy, about 5pm that afternoon to go to the shops with her daughter and two of his children.
When she got back to the unit, she ran to a bedroom where her son was lying naked on a bed, as Mr Kennedy attempted to revive him.
Ms Frost, a nurse with 20 years experience, said Ms Swales was very upset, screaming and yelling, and by the time they were inside the hospital she was repeating herself.
"She was crying and saying 'I never should have left him, oh my god, my little boy, I'm so sorry', and she just kept repeating that over and over," Ms Frost said.
Ms Swales, who was 21 at the time, was eventually taken into another room and at 6.55pm that night, 'Jordy' was pronounced dead.
"She was devastated, absolutely heart broken ... just a broken mum," Ms Frost said.
Trial day three
Ms Frost was giving evidence on day three of the trial of Mr Kennedy, now aged 52, who has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
He is accused of dosing the toddler with an antidepressant, amitriptyline, within 24 hours of his death, either causing his death directly, or contributing to his death by drowning.
During the trial the jury has heard that there were traces of amitriptyline found in the bath water in which Mr Kennedy had bathed Jordan, as well as in the vomit on the clothes that Jordan had been wearing earlier that day.
Mr Kennedy allegedly told police he did not know anyone who took those tables.
The jury has also been told that Mr Kennedy had been prescribed amitriptyline as an antidepressant, and that some were found in his Singleton unit.
No medical signs of drowning
At the hospital, by the time Jordan was seen by the on-call medico after being rushed to emergency by his mother, he was on the brink of death, the court heard.
Dr Sarah Williams, who treated him that night, said the little boy had a rash, which was often a symptom of the body's organs shutting down.
Another doctor attempted to intubate him, during which no liquid emerged from the boy's lungs, Dr Williams said.
Jordan did not show any medical signs of drowning, Dr Williams said.
When asked what she would expect to see if a child presented to emergency very shortly after drowning, she said the body would be wet, as well as the hair.
"They could have secretions coming from their nose or their mouth and when you place a tube in their lungs, normally you would see fluids coming back up out of the tube, bubbling up," Dr Williams said.
She would also have expected him to present with blue skin, instead of white.
Earlier in the day the jury was shown several video recordings of various walk-throughs of the unit and the activities of crime scene officers who arrived later that night.
They also heard from the officer in charge of the investigation, then Detective Senior Constable Adam Walsh.
The trial, before Judge Craig Smith SC, continues.
