Tragedy as baby died after virus

Tyler McDonald’s mother woke on Christmas Eve to find the child unresponsive in her and her partner’s bed on Christmas Eve.

Kayleigh Catchpole told an inquest in Hull she had put the one-month-old to bed “happy as normal”.

Although he was resuscitated in hospital, he had suffered irreversible brain damage, following a cardiac arrest, and died on Boxing Day.

He had been taken to his GP with a cough and colic on December 19 and again two days later for his six-week check. But the inquest was told there was “no real reason” to suspect what was about to happen. Consultant paediatrician Dr Mary Barraclough said: “These viruses are around in the environment and there’s absolutely nothing we can do to protect ourselves or babies from acquiring this virus... For this virus to cause this particular effect is very rare.”

Coroner Geoffrey Saul recorded a verdict of natural causes. He said: “We are all at risk of getting viruses but occasionally – and this is a very sad example of that – it leads to death.”