Inquest told baby found dead in car seat

A 14-MONTH-OLD baby boy was found dead in his car seat after spending three hours in a parked car on a warm day in July last year, an inquest heard yesterday.

At Clare County Coroner’s Court, coroner Isobel O’Dea recorded that hyperthermia was a contributory factor in the death of Nathan Ryan on July 29th, 2010, at a holiday caravan park near Spanish Point beach in west Clare.

However, the inquest was told by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy that the child was very well cared for and there was no evidence of trauma.

The inquest heard that the child was on holiday at the Co Clare resort with his foster parents, Fiona and Liam Doheny, Toureen, Ballysimon, Limerick.

Ms Doheny told the inquest that Nathan was unsettled and she decided to take him for a drive and put him in the car seat in the back of the car at the caravan park.

When she saw that Nathan was fast asleep, Ms Doheny said she decided to sit out with her mother on two deckchairs 10 feet from the car and watch Nathan from there.

She said: “I left the driver’s door open with the window of the door slightly open. I checked Nathan three times while he was in the car. At 4pm, I went into the mobile home to heat milk for him and when I checked Nathan, he wasn’t right. He was still and I tried to wake him, but he remained still.”

Attempts by medical personnel to revive the child failed, and he was pronounced dead at 5.30pm.

Dr Cassidy said gardaí, as part of their investigation, reconstructed the temperatures in the car on the day.

“They found that in their reconstruction, temperatures in the car would have risen, but not to a lethal level and it would have been only a few degrees above the outside temperature.” She concluded that the cause of death was sudden unexplained death in an infant, with a risk or contributory factor being hyperthermia.