BMJ  2007;334:7 (6 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39070.643009.3A

Letters

SIDS paper

Special report adds nothing new, say paper authors

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We were disappointed that Gornall's article1 was published without a response from us. It added nothing new.2 3 Our paper reviewed the first 57 deaths on the CONI (Care Of Next Infant), programme. We reaffirm that nine deaths were inevitable (recognised cause), and of the 48 unexpected deaths, seven were probable homicide.

Professor Emery led the CONI steering group until his death (2000). We did not materially change the cause of death for any case he knew about.

There are differences between an earlier report4 and subsequent full paper.2 In the Lancet, we reported but excluded from analysis deaths over one year and clarified "non-natural" deaths. Four infants who died in bed with their parents were initially classified as "non-natural" as they were possibly accidental and avoidable. They were subsequently categorised as SIDS in line with the CESDI SUDI study.5 The "non-natural" group initially also included cases recorded as open . . . [Full text of this article]

R G Carpenter, honorary professor1, A Waite, national co-ordinator, CONI Programme2, R C Coombs, consultant neonatologist3, C Daman-Willems, consultant paediatrician4, A McKenzie, research fellow5, J Huber, consultant paediatric pathologist (retired)6

1 Medical Statistics Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Population Science, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT bob.carpenter@lshtm.ac.uk , 2 Academic Unit of Child Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Children's Hospital, Sheffield S10 2TH, 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Jessop Wing, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield S10 2SF, 4 University Hospital, Lewisham, London SE13 6LH, 5 Medical Statistics Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Population Science, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 6 University Hospital for Children and Youth, 3501 CA Utrecht, Netherlands


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Uncertainty in classification of repeat sudden unexpected infant deaths in Care of the Next Infant programme
C J Bacon, West Yorkshire Braithwaite, and E N Hey
BMJ 2007 335: 129-131. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Was message of sudden infant death study misleading?
Jonathan Gornall
BMJ 2006 333: 1165-1168. [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Bacon, C J, Braithwaite, W. Y., Hey, E N (2007). Uncertainty in classification of repeat sudden unexpected infant deaths in Care of the Next Infant programme. BMJ 335: 129-131 [Full text]  
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ