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'There's no rhyme or reason' - Loss following Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood

Ada was just turning 20-months-old when she passed away in October 2022
Jack Quann
Jack Quann

15.14 13 Mar 2024


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'There's no rhyme or reason' -...

'There's no rhyme or reason' - Loss following Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood

Jack Quann
Jack Quann

15.14 13 Mar 2024


Share this article


A man whose baby daughter died suddenly has said he wants to make sure it is not a genetic condition.

Ada was just turning 20-months-old when she passed away in October 2022.

If a child is under one-year-old a death can be classed as SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

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Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) is a category of death in children after the age of one that remains unexplained.

Aaron told Lunchtime Live awareness of the condition in Ireland is very low.

"There's literally nothing in Ireland, even the pathologist classed it as SIDS - there's no recognition here at all for Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood because the numbers are so low," he said.

"It would have been called cot death years ago, that's what it would have been classed as.

"They obviously found out it's nothing to do with the cot, there's no actual rhyme or reason why it happens."

'Happy and healthy'

Aaron recalls putting his daughter to bed in October 2022.

"I put her to bed, a happy and healthy little girl, full of life," he said.

"I went back up to check on her at 10pm and we think she was gone at that stage.

"The paramedics worked on her for about 40 minutes but at that stage she was actually gone.

"She just had the usual childhood sniffles, colds but nothing to concern us".

'She never got to experience life'

Aaron said he checked on Ada a number of times that night.

"I put her to bed at 7pm, I checked her at 8pm on the monitor - grand - checked her at 9pm, she was moving having a bottle of water," he said.

"I went up about 10.10pm and she was face down in the cot."

Aaron said Ada's tests came back with "nothing".

"Ada's case is still open... we actually want to send Ada's sample to the SUDC Foundation [in the United States] and they can do further genome testing," he said.

"I've lost parents, I've lost siblings - they were at an age where you look and go, 'They've had some sort of life.'

"You can grieve them but your heart can sort of mend a little bit.

"Ada never got to experience life".

Aaron said they want to find out if the condition could be genetic for Ada's little sister Anna.

"We don't know if was a gene in Ada, we don't know if Anna carries this gene," he said.

"Me and my wife just literally spend about 20 minutes asleep and then we're up just checking Anna every night".

'I still don't know why'

SUDC UK CEO Nikki Speed said it can be hard to get answers.

"In the UK we know it's about 40 to 50 children affected every year, that's about one to two children a fortnight," she said.

"The numbers sound small but each of these numbers is a child that's seemingly happy [and] healthy.

"They're fine one day and the next morning usually their parents find that they've died overnight.

"The investigations take months and months and sometimes years and [parents] are still left not knowing what happened.

"My daughter died 10 years ago; I still don't know why she died.

"If you've not got answers you don't know how to protect your other children," she added.

More information on SUDC can be found here

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Main image: Ada. Image: Supplied

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