Baby in blood scare weeks before fatal collapse
A baby alleged to have been shaken to death by her father had vomited blood less than three weeks before her fatal collapse, a murder trial heard.
Four-month-old Hope Smith's concerned parents took her to hospital where they were told the bleeding was most likely a one-off occurrence caused by the physical act of vomiting.
Neil Smith, 33, is charged with violently shaking the child at the family home in Salters Road, Walsall Wood, on August 4, 2017, leading to her death three months later.
He had been watching a football match on the television while his wife was out when Hope began crying and had brought the baby downstairs to settle her. But within minutes she had become 'floppy and lifeless' in his arms, he told police.
Smith's defence team suggest that the baby may have had a naturally occurring illness which could have played a part in her death, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
But Dr Tamas Marton, a perinatal pathologist, who performed a post mortem on Hope, concluded the child had no pre-existing disease or genetic condition that would have led to her collapse.
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The blood in her vomit in mid-July was believed to be from a superficial tear in the gullet caused by the strain of forcibly vomiting. Such injuries naturally healed in a few days and there had been no more bleeding episodes with Hope, the jury heard.
She had been a healthy baby meeting all her medical milestones prior to her collapse. "I did not see anything that might have led Hope to have vomiting problems," said Dr Marton.
Advanced nurse practitioner Anne McManus at Walsall Manor Hospital's urgent care unit, who examined Hope when she was brought in over the vomiting scare, said it was possibly caused by brand intolerance of her formula milk. She described Hope as 'happy, smiley, pink, responsive and well hydrated'.
Forensic pathologist Dr Alexander Kolar, who also conducted a post mortem, gave the cause of Hope's death as head injury.
Ambulance staff called to the scene found no pulse in the baby. However she was revived after 40 minutes of heart resuscitation and taken to Walsall Manor Hospital before being transferred the same day to the intensive care unit at Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Her parents were told that Hope was brain-dead but they asked doctors not to turn off her life-support machine in case she showed any signs of recovery. She eventually died on November 9, aged seven months.
Smith, of Coleridge Close, Willenhall, denies murder. The case continues.
