A cause cannot be found for the tragic death of a baby girl at just 16-days-old, an inquest has heard.
Little Ryla-Rae Kenny was just a newborn when she was found ‘unresponsive’ in her Moses basket. Devastated mum Ruth Mellor had just got up in her darkened bedroom at around 7.30am on January 5, 2023, cast her eye over her baby, who appeared to be still sleeping, before starting breakfast.
To her horror, it was then discovered that Ryla-Rae was a ‘funny colour and freezing cold’ just before 8.30am, heard Bolton Coroners Court on Tuesday (June 6). The nightmare came only a few hours after Ryla-Rae had been up for her last feed and nappy change at around 5am.
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The pregnancy had been smooth and, despite some complications during birth, Ryla-Rae arrived on December 12, 2022, at six pounds, eight ounces. She was behaving normally during her first weeks of life - feeding and sleeping well, her parents told the court.
But just 16 days later, mum Ruth found herself screaming for partner and dad to Ryla-Rae, Ryan Kenny, terrified that ‘something’s wrong’.
The couple called the emergency services and started trying to resuscitate their girl. Paramedics continued as Ryla-Rae was rushed from her home in Eccles to Salford Royal Hospital.
Medics put the baby on a ventilator and gave her more adrenaline as they tried to save her life. But after more than 40 minutes of paramedics and doctors trying to resuscitate Ryla-Rae, there were no signs of life and the baby was pronounced dead at 9.25am, paediatric consultant Raja Syahanee said to the court in a written statement.
Investigations began, including genetic, biological, cardiac and metabolic tests. However, all the examinations being carried out by consultant paediatric pathologist Dr Heather Keir came back without answers as to why Ryla-Rae had died - the doctor saying she had ‘no significant findings at all’.
There had been no accidental or non-accidental injuries found in the case of Ryla-Rae, toxicology reports came back as negative. Ryla-Rae’s parents had been worried about the development of oral thrush the day before her death, but had acted quickly to get her a prescription from her GP which they were intending to collect on January 5.
Dr Keir said this would not have contributed to Ryla-Rae’s death, as there were no signs of any serious infection.
Greater Manchester Police carried out enquiries and, too, ruled out any suspicions about the tragic death.
Dr Keir told the court that Ryla-Rae’s death could be the result of an underlying cause that cannot be detected. She explained: “There might have been issues such as arrhythmias that don’t show up or that there aren’t tests for yet.
“It might have been a different cause but we might just not have a way to diagnose yet.”
The pathologist said in the post-mortem, she was unable to find any unnatural cause of death, giving her formal cause of death as unascertained.
Assistant coroner Stephen Teasdale recorded a narrative conclusion of Ryla-Rae’s death coming ‘as a consequence of unascertained but natural causes’.
“Babies unfortunately can die of things that we don’t know about,” he added.
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