A six-month-old baby has died in Britain after being found pinned between his sleeping mother and the back of a chair.
The drunk woman passed out after drinking two or three bottles of wine, according to a report from the local Derby and Derbyshire Child Welfare Committee, available to the BBC.
It was the child’s father who returned home to find the two lifeless bodies on the chair. The mother was sleepy and the baby was “apparently lifeless,” the report said.
The child died two days later, although attempts to resuscitate the baby initially seemed to work.
The mother’s family glossed over her “chaotic alcohol abuse” while the child was alive, and several signs should have alarmed authorities, according to the local Child Safeguarding Committee, the DPJ’s corresponding UK affiliate.
The lady’s sister, for example, had already called the police to report her and the baby missing, fearing alcohol consumption was at stake.
Her husband had also reported her for drunk driving with the child in the vehicle.
Despite these indications, the extent to which the mother’s consumption endangers the child’s health has not been investigated.
The professionals who confronted the mother about her relationship with alcohol preferred to believe her version of the facts. The woman said she only drinks occasionally.
A completely different portrait appeared after the baby died.
The mother’s father and family stated that the mother had “severe and persistent drinking problems for several years.”
Had this information been known prior to the tragedy, “it could have shaken the confidence of professionals in the safety of this baby,” according to the local child protection committee’s report.