Lecanvey inquest

Heartbroken mother describes baby as an angel in heaven

THE mother of a 25-month-old baby who died in her arms after a sudden illness spoke of how her heart broke in two when he died and described how he is now an angel in heaven.
Little Joshua Kelly of Thornhill, Lecanvey, Westport died from a rare condition commonly known as ‘bowel death’ just 14 hours after he became sick on December 28, 2007.
His mother Emily Kelly told the inquest into his death how Joshua, her youngest son, was rushed to hospital after having stopped breathing and becoming unconscious during the night, at roughly 1.30am. The inquest heard that the condition was relatively unheard of in children and there was nothing that could either detect or prevent it.
Over the following 14 hours, staff in the intensive care unit ran tests to find out what caused Joshua to stop breathing, and he was put on a breathing machine. During this time Joshua was completely unresponsive and, at 3pm, Emily Kelly and her partner Robert were told that Joshua was not going to survive.
Ms Kelly told the inquest that Joshua died in her arms, which she said was the way he would have wanted it to be, with his Winnie the Pooh bear.
She said that there was no reason to suspect that Joshua was anything but in optimum health and described him as a confident, healthy and energetic beautiful boy.
She said he received all the necessary vaccinations on the correct dates and on each occasion the Public Health Nurse found he was developing normally.
She explained that she later found out that the condition Joshua died from was very rare and the chances of children of Joshua’s age dying from it was one in the millions. She paid tribute to Joshua, saying that he was with God as an angel in heaven.
“I will always adore and miss Josh beyond words. He was a very affectionate, charming little boy with lots of cuddles and the most beautiful smile. This is the cruellest blow. His death defies all reason and there is no good answer. I can only imagine that God called Josh to be with him as an angel in Heaven. I believe that Josh is an angel now. Life will never be the same without Josh because when his heart stopped beating mine broke in two and I will never get over this,” she said.
Mr Robert Ferris, partner of Ms Kelly, explained that at approximately 1.30am on Friday December 28, he went into Joshua’s room and found he was’t breathing. He performed CPR on him until the paramedics arrived and took him straight to hospital.
He said they were comforted by the fact that he suffered little or no pain, and that while he was not Joshua’s natural father he said he loved him as his own and misses him terribly.
Dr Fadel Bennani, Consultant Pathologist, told the inquest that his colleague, Dr Iqdam Tobbia, carried out the post mortem on Joshua and found that his death was primarily due to infarction of the colon, most likely induced by volvukus.
He said the colon in the bowel was twisted and the blood supply was cut off. He said the condition was very rare in babies and was more difficult to detect than in adults. He said the infarction in an adult can develop over six hours while in a baby it could happen in only two hours.
Mr John O’Dwyer, Coroner for South Mayo, recorded a verdict of death due to natural causes and extended his sympathies to Joshua’s family.
He said that no words could ease their pain but hoped that time would heal the loss suffered. Superintendent Eugene Brennan also extended his sympathies to the family.