The drowning of a nine-month-old boy has prompted a coroner to call for a national safety campaign on the dangers of baby bath chairs after a series of similar deaths and injuries.
Chester Mossop, a “healthy and well looked after” child from Cockermouth in Cumbria, died in May last year when the chair in which he was sitting became unfixed and his head slipped under the bathwater.
He had been left for just a few minutes while a plug-in diffuser was fitted in his bedroom as the child had a mild cold but was found face-down in the bath.
The unresponsive baby was given CPR and flown by air ambulance to the Great North children’s hospital at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle but died “peacefully” three days later at 6.05pm on 3 June in his mother’s arms, according to a report from the coroner in Cumbria, Kirsty Gomersal.
An MRI scan had shown that the child had sustained an unsurvivable brain injury due to drowning.
In a report to the NHS Office for Product Safety and Standards, Gomersal warned of the risk of further deaths from baby bath chairs, which she said were unsafe. She highlighted in her report a series of similar cases that had been heard by coroners around the country in support of the need for a national campaign to warn of the dangers of the products, which remain popular among parents.
“I am aware of similar tragic deaths to Chester’s and inquests held by my fellow coroners,” she writes. “The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) is also aware of fatal and non-fatal incidents. I am concerned that bath seats may give parents a false sense of security that their child is safe. Bath seats are not safety devices.”
The latest statistics on deaths of children in bath chairs were not available but in 2015 it was reported that one in three accidental drowning deaths among children aged two and below had involved the products.
In the case of Chester, the coroner heard there had been “no sounds that Chester was in distress or difficulty” when he went under the water. Babies can die in just a few centimetres of water.
Ashley Martin, a public health adviser at Rospa, said no type of bath seat was safe. He said: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Chester Mossop in what can only be described as a tragic accident. Our thoughts and condolences are with Chester’s family and loved ones, who must be experiencing unimaginable pain.
“Many people assume baby bath seats are safe, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Whether there is a bath seat or not, there is always a risk of drowning when a child is in or around water. Sadly, it only takes a couple of seconds and a small amount of water for a child to drown.
“Keeping your child safe is not about the specific type of bath seat, but about making sure that whenever your child is in or around water, you are in arm’s reach and that they are never left unattended. By sharing this simple advice, we hope to see less tragic accidents take place.”
