Annual meeting addresses infant, child deaths in St. Joseph County

ST.JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. — St. Joseph County’s Child Fatality Review Team held its annual meeting Wednesday morning.

The meeting occurred at the St. Joseph County Jail on May 15 at 8 a.m.

CFRT is comprised of volunteers including representatives from health care providers, law enforcement, the county’s health department, coroner, fire, EMS, the prosecutor’s office and the Department of Child Services.

The purpose of the team is to review infant and child deaths in the county. The team is tasked with determining whether any death patterns exist or if any of the deaths were preventable.

This year’s meeting discussed gun deaths, sleep-related deaths from 2017 as well as dating violence.

At the meeting, officials said the most frequent cause of infant deaths over the last few years were complications from premature births.

“Prematurity is the leading cause but eleven is a higher than expected number for us on sleep deaths which is another high cause of infant mortality,” Review Team Chair Betsy McCue said.

Officials reviewed a total of 18 cases: 10 involved teens, six involved children and two involved infants. Last year, one infant died from sudden infant death syndrome, officials say.