BIRTH CONCEALED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 773, 20 September 1929, Page 11

BIRTH CONCEALED

STRANGE STORY OF YOUNG WOMAN’S DEATH VERDICT AT INQUEST “Cases of women who have successfully concealed the birth of children are by no means rare in medical history,” commented Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., coroner, when an inquest was held at the Mental Hospital yesterday on the death of Lily Wall, whose funeral was stopped in unusual circumstances on September 12. TpVIDENCE as to the finding of a baby’s body in a box beneath Miss Avail’s bed was given by two nurses at the Mental Hospital. The discovery had been made after the death of Miss Wall, who was employed as assistant cook at the institution. Three doctors of the Mental Hospital staff who had attended Miss Wall during the illness which preceded her sudden death, said that they had not suspected her condition nor that her illness was due to child-birth. The results of a post-mortem examination of the bodies of both the young woman and the child were given by Dr. Walter Gilmour. The woman showed signs of having been in a certain condition and her death .was due to puerperal sepsis and pulmonary thrombosis. The examination of the body of the female infant revealed that it was a full-time child but stillborn. The lungs contained no air, showing that the child had never breathed. Returning a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence the coroner said that he was satisfied that there had been no negligence on the part of the medical staff in not detecting her condition. The young woman had successfully concealed it from doctors, nurses and staff.