The parents of baby Noah who died while in the care of a local crèche are disappointed with a magistrate’s inquest ruling that no-one can be held responsible for the infant’s death.
Eight-month-old Noah Shipman was found blue around his mouth in a cot at Seaside Play Centre on 25 May 2015 and taken to Kingsway Hospital, where CPR was performed on him for about 20 minutes before he was declared dead.
In his judgement on Wednesday, 28 September, Durban magistrate Irfan Khallil found that while there were concerns over certain aspects of the case, no-one could be held responsible.
Noah’s parents Marie (24) and Philip (25) are dissatisfied with the court’s ruling and feel they don’t have closure, as they will never know the truth surrounding their son’s death.
According to Marie, Noah and his older brother Adrian (3) were dropped off at the Iphala Road crèche at about 6.45am.
“At about 10.50am I received a call from the hospital where I work, to say Noah was in casualty and they were performing CPR on him, as he couldn’t breathe,” she said.
Noah was declared dead at 11.20am.
In Dr R Howlett’s medical report it stated that baby Noah was dead on arrival.
“Once we decided to do an autopsy via the state, the police had to open a docket. Only then did they take statements from the principal’s husband Edward William and myself the next day on 26 May,” added Marie.
The pathologist Dr Khanyeza of Park Rynie mortuary had originally ruled Noah’s death as natural.
“At a meeting with the pathologist in September, he told us there were documents outstanding from the hospital that the police hadn’t collected yet.” The pathologist then changed his ruling with regards to the cause of death to asphyxia consistent with aspiration after he received the missing documents, as he found fluid on the lungs during the post mortem on Noah. However, the fluid was never sent away to be examined.
No photos were taken of the scene or exhibits collected from the cot, and the police only went to the crèche to take statements from staff members.
Statements were only taken in September, four months after Noah’s death, after Marie and Philip complained to Brigadier Marion, the provincial head of detectives, regarding the police investigation.
On that fateful morning Noah was left in the care of a cleaner, as his caregiver was running late. The Shipman family wasn’t aware of this.
The cleaner Rejoice Gwala was relieved by an assistant, who was found mentally incapable of looking after infants.
According to the inquest docket, the crèche had eight staff members but only two were qualified caregivers and the person left in charge of the school at the time, Elizabeth Myburg’s first aid certificate had lapsed a year prior to Noah’s death.
The school’s registration had lapsed before the time of Noah’s death.
“As parents we weren’t informed of this.
Noah was teething at the time and he had a runny nose but he was a healthy boy,” said Marie.
“A month prior he had a check-up and the magistrate made it clear he was not a sick baby.”
The pathologist was not aware Noah had died at the crèche until the missing documents were received.
Noah’s brother Adrian still attended the crèche until his parents discovered that the cause of death was changed from natural to unnatural in November.
There was also a discrepancy in the timeline from when Noah was found in distress at 10am and his arrival at the hospital 50 minutes later. The crèche is located about 300m from the hospital.
“We still don’t know what happened that day or who is responsible for Noah’s death,” said an emotional Marie.
“The crèche was supposed to inform social welfare there was a death at the crèche but they haven’t.
If the proper procedures were followed, there wouldn’t have been a lack of evidence.”
Marie said the magistrate’s ruling came as no surprise to them as they “saw it coming due to the lack of evidence”.
We still don’t know what happened that day or who is responsible for Noah’s death
“We kind of knew what the outcome would be.
No proper postmortem was done on Noah and the police investigation was shocking.
There was fluid found on his lungs but his stomach was empty. He only had 50ml of liquid in his bladder, although the centre said he was given a bottle and porridge that morning.
The investigating officer Sgt Mkize did not take the statements under oath, nor were they read back to us.
The court said the investigating officer was not aware of how to take statements under oath.
The principal of the centre, Ann Williams was out of the country at the time of the incident and the centre was left in her husband’s care, even though he has a full-time job.
People need to be aware of what happened. Schools needs to take responsibility for each and every child they take care of – that’s what we pay for.
Parents must find out if a school is registered with the right departments and if the caregivers are qualified before they leave their children in their care.
It’s not always about the school fees, it’s about the child’s care.”
Seaside Play Centre and Toti SAPS declined to comment on the case.
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