Two-year-old’s mum ‘traumatised’ over his death and injuries
The ‘traumatised’ mum of a 22-month-old toddler has spoken about how she was woken up to find him blue, lying in vomit and unresponsive.
The traumatised mum of a 22-month-old toddler said her partner woke her up in a panic when he found her son blue, unresponsive and lying in vomit.
The toddler, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was rushed to the Royal Children Hospital in Melbourne after he was found in his bed on February 2019.
The partner of the child’s mum found the boy and called paramedics, but the child died the next day.
“I’m still really traumatised by this,” the woman told Coroner Caitlin English at the inquest into her child’s death on Wednesday.
The coronial investigation into the boy’s death began this week to examine the circumstances leading up to his death, his other emergency hospital visits and child protection measures.
Her 22-month-old son was vomiting and had diarrhoea in the days before his death, she told the court.
She explained the day her son was found unresponsive she had also become unwell with similar symptoms and went to bed early.
Her partner, whose identity has been suppressed, woke her up about 8pm and it was the first time the mum realised something was wrong.
Throughout her evidence, which was conducted via audio link, the woman’s voice cracked as she described what happened.
“He seemed pretty panicked and I just followed him as it was a very short distance from my bedroom to the boys’ bedroom and I think the first thing I saw was [her eldest son] just sitting on the end of his bed,” she said.
Her youngest boy was on the ground and her partner was standing over him doing chest compressions with the triple-0 operator on loud speaker.
“I remember racing to the front door to open it … the first person that arrived was just walking to the door and I just started yelling at her just to run,” she told the court.
She said when they arrived at the hospital she asked her partner what happened and he explained he had heard a sound and smelt vomit after putting the boy to bed.
The inquest heard days before the boy died he was taken to the children’s hospital because of bruising and swelling to his testicle area.
A forensic pathologist said it was “possible” he was injured playing with his brother but unlikely.
When asked about the bruises her son had to his testicles the mother told the court it “didn’t enter her mind” it could have been caused by someone.
“It didn’t really enter my mind, I honestly thought it was a bruise from being knocked,” she said.
A doctor who saw the boy agreed with her, she said.
“It allowed me not to think about any other scenarios that would have just been absolutely devastating to think about,” she said.
The woman also told the court looking back on the relationship with her former partner she believed he was trying to not make her “mother” the 22-month-old boy “too much”.
She said she believed her then-partner thought she was spending too much time with the boy.
Earlier the court was told the child’s father started to notice unexplained injuries on his son’s body before he died.
The child’s mum and her partner started a fraught relationship soon after she separated from the boy’s father.
The dad told a coronial inquest that he started taking photos of his son’s injuries, including bruises around his eye, hand and genitals.
“It was just a suspicion of the injury and how it occurred,” the emotional dad told the court on Wednesday.
His son “winced” and said “ouchie” when he had to change his nappy because of the bruising there, he told the court.
The inquest heard that three months before the toddler died, he was taken to the emergency room after being found with baby wipes in his mouth and presenting as “floppy” in the arms of his mum’s partner.
The dad told the court he wasn’t told about this until after it happened.
After this the dad said his ex wife’s partner started sending him “threatening” messages.
“He was constantly messaging me, calling me and threatening me. Lots of psycho stuff so I blocked his number,” the dad told the court.
“He was threatening to come down and assault me at my house and so forth.”
The inquest heard the partner, who cannot be identified, was charged when another two-and-a-half year-old boy was found to have ice in his system in 2016. That boy survived.
The man was charged with recklessly causing serious injury in relation to the incident but it was dropped.
In October 2020 he was convicted and fined $1000 after he pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing a drug of dependence.
The boy’s dad said he had no idea about the other man’s prior criminal history or drug use.
The woman’s partner occasionally took solo care of the child and his older brother at their Pascoe Vale home.
Experts had previously been called to give evidence about the extent of the injuries they found on the child’s body and drugs they found in his system.
The forensic pathologist said the toddler had an internal injury similar to a seatbelt injury people in “high speed” car crashes could suffer.
Another doctor said the boy had a broken wrist and ribs and these were likely “non-accidental”.
A toxicologist said traces of ice found in the deceased boy’s blood and urine meant he ingested the drug.
The hearing in front of Coroner Caitlin English continues on Thursday.