https://www.toledoblade.com/local/2019/10/10/3-Toledo-infants-die-in-4-day-span/stories/20191010120

3 Toledo infants die in 4-day span

10/10/2019 BY BROOKS SUTHERLAND / THE BLADE

Signs outside of The Toledo-Lucas County Health Department give tips to new mothers outside of The Toledo-Lucas County Health Department on Thursday, October 10, 2019. (THE BLADE/ AMY E. VOIGT)

Three babies died over a four-day span in Toledo, prompting police to partner with the local health department in an effort to spread educational information they hope will curb the lingering issue of infant deaths in Lucas County.

“In 30 years, I don’t ever remember seeing that amount in such a short time,” Toledo Police Chief George Kral said at a news conference on Thursday. “It was alarming to us; it was alarming to the community.”

Chief Kral said his department reached out to the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department to form a partnership where the two entities could “increase education for new parents” on “how to keep their kids safe.”

According to preliminary data, the deaths, which took place from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2, bring the total number of infant deaths in Lucas County up to 37 for the year to date. As The Blade recently reported, 40 infants died in 2018, a drop from 53 in 2017. So far this year, 19 babies have died due to premature births.

Eric Zgodzinski, the health department’s commissioner, said Thursday that the recent deaths may have been preventable. He’s urging the community to help parents become more informed about safe sleep practices, which involve babies sleeping alone on their back and not with a parent.

County Coroner Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett confirmed at least one of the babies had died from positional asphyxia, which occurs when a person’s posture prevents them from breathing. Dr. Scala-Barnett said the 7-week-old male baby died by accident on Sept. 28 after he was wedged between his mother and a leather sofa. The mother was sleeping with twin babies on the couch.

The cause of two other deaths, a 3-month-old female and a 10-day-old female, haven’t yet been determined.

“The infant mortality rate that we have in our community is very sad,” Mr. Zgodzinski added. “Babies dying is something that the whole community needs to be aware of. It is a community problem. It just can’t be fire, can’t be police, can’t be us, can’t be elected officials.”

Bethany Anteau, a health educator for the department, said state grants allow health officials to disperse cribs to families who don’t have a safe place for their children to sleep. The department has a cribs program and an initiative called the Getting to 1 coalition, which is a community-driven effort to reduce infant deaths.

“Parents can come and take an education class on safe sleep,” she said. “The education is a big piece, and then it’s the practice. It’s actually practicing the education so every sleep a baby has, in the afternoon or at night, they are alone, on their back in the crib.”

Chief Kral said the partnership with the health department will involve operations officers on duty taking informational pamphlets to be handed out to parents.

He says responding to a scene involving a dying baby is particularly traumatic for officers.

“Unfortunately, seeing people who are no longer with us is a part of our job,” the chief said. “But when you see a child that small, it really tugs at our heartstrings and breaks our heart. We suffer from PTSD as well as anyone else.”

Contact Brooks Sutherland at bsutherland@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.