On 17 July 2001 identical twin girls died together in the cot they shared.  They were three months old.  The case goes before a coroner, even though there are no suspicious circumstances, because of the rarity of simultaneous deaths. 

The deaths have all the indications of Cot Deaths.  But what is a Cot Death?  It means nothing can be found in the autopsies, the death scene investigation, or the clinical history of the babies to indicate a cause of death.  We’ve been certifying this kind of death as Cot Death or SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) since 1969.  For 35 years no-one has been able to advance any better reason why 50 babies, that’s one baby a week, in New Zealand die every year.

Programme-makers Jude Dobson and Jan McIntosh ask if this is this good enough?  In the year they’ve worked on the programme they’ve uncovered some very good research which could possibly point to a mechanism of death in the case of the twins.  The problem is that it’s only research and the medical profession won’t use it as a diagnostic tool.   “It seems police, pathologists and coroners are happy using the convenient catch-all of SIDS because then no-one is to blame – not the parents, nor the doctors, nor the Ministry of Health.   For our parents SIDS or Cot Death isn’t good enough – they want to know what causes it,” says McIntosh.

So how important is it for us in New Zealand to find mechanisms of death in Cot Death? “We have a very good reason to be looking,” says Dobson. “New Zealand has had the highest Cot Death rates of all comparable countries for the last 18 years - that’s since comparisons were first made.  Maybe it’s time to put the spotlight on Cot Death again – the single biggest killer by a wide margin of babies between one month and one year of age in New Zealand.”

The information in this documentary is lifesaving.
You can preview this Cot Death Inquiry documentary here and Purchase Online