DEATH OF AN INFANT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 196, 8 May 1918, Page 3

DEATH OF AN INFANT

Mr. W. G. Riddel', S.M., conducted an inquest yesterday afternoon into the cause of death of an infant named Frederick Leo Fitzgerald, aged 14 months, which took placo at the Wellington Hospital on May 2. Dr. D. M. Paterson, house surgeon at the Wellington Hospital, stated that the child was admitted to tho Hospital on Thursday morniug suffering from shock due to burns extending over practically the whole of the front of the body. His condition improved up to 7 p.m., but from that on he gradually sank and died at midnight. Death followed from shock due to burns.

Mrs. J. Fitzgerald, mother of tihe child, said that on the morning of May 2 the infant was temporarily in tho charge of his sister, who was seven years old. The girl laid a celluloid comb down on a chair and tho little boy, who was running about, picked tho comb up and poked it into the fire. The comb blazed up and set fire to his pinafore. Witness extinguished the flames' as speedily as possible, but in the meantime the child was badly burned. Dr. Mackin arrived quickly in response to a call, and ordered tho child to the Hospital. The Coroner Tclumed a verdict that death was caused by shock, due to burns accidentally received, and remarked that it was perhaps not generally known how dangerous celluloid articles were if allowed near fire.