Korean J Leg Med.  2023 Feb;47(1):8-13. 10.7580/kjlm.2023.47.1.8.

Analysis of Cases of Infants and Children Asphyxia at Day Care Center: Cases of Asphyxia in the Process of Teachers Putting the Infants and Children to Sleep

• Park JH
• Lee BW
• Park JP
• Jun YJ

• KMID: 2539925
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2023.47.1.8

Abstract

In the cases of infants and children, there is a special form of accidental asphyxia that occurs in an unsafe sleeping environment. Rarely, some infants and children unexpectedly die in the day care centers. This also occurs during the process when teachers put the infants and children to sleep. This analysis was performed on national forensic autopsy cases from January 1, 2001, to October 31, 2022. The 97,402 cases were selected to provide their incident overview, the cause of death and the manner of death. The cases of infants and children asphyxia at day care centers were 43 cases (0.04%). The major cause of death was sudden infants and children death syndrome which included the possibility of accidental asphyxia (31 cases). This was followed by chocking (8 cases), complicated asphyxia (2 cases), smothering (1 case), and positional asphyxia (1 case). Two cases were a result of homicide, 10 cases were accidents, and 31 cases had unknown manner of death. There were four cases of asphyxia that occurred in the process of teachers putting infants and children to sleep. In all cases, there were no specific findings in the autopsy and there were CCTV footage including contact with the day care center teacher while taking a nap. Reporting these results provides information and awareness to social members related with infants and children, specially day care centers, and serves as basis for establishing social systems such as mandatory of CCTVs, helping to reduce the occurrence of similar death on infants and children.

Keyword

Asphyxia; Infant; Child; Child day care center; Autopsy