Baby died of rare disease, inquest heard

12:55pm Friday 18th July 2008

A WOMAN whose baby died suddenly after contracting a rare heart condition has spoken of her grief.

Mark Kamau Kagema was only two months old when he died on Easter Monday, March 24, at his home in Drakes Drive, St Albans, an inquest heard yesterday.

His mother Faith Kamau, an accounting student who has lived in St Albans for nine years, woke in the early morning to feed her first born but discovered him to be unresponsive and called the emergency services.

Resuscitation attempts were carried out on Mark but he was formally pronounced dead at Watford General Hospital later that morning.

A post mortem revealed Mark died from myocarditis, inflammation of the heart which can cause sudden death.

Coroner Edward Thomas, who recorded a death verdict of natural causes, told Faith and the father Edward Kagema: “Comments from the hospital, your GP and the pathologist indicate he was a very well looked after baby. As parents you did everything right.

“It was a rare condition that nobody could have done anything about, it happens very suddenly with no signs. You can’t think ‘if only I had taken him to the doctors’ because nobody could have done anything.”

At first the family thought that Mark could have died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning following a problem with the home’s boiler, but tests carried out by pathologist Flora Jessop found it was highly unlikely.

A funeral for the ‘smiling baby’ was held at the Hatfield Road Cemetery Chapel and followed by a celebratory service of his life in Golders Green, where Faith attends Church.

Faith told the St Albans Review: ”I just woke in the night to feed him, and he had gone.

"He was a smiley boy who, although lived his life short, lived it full and adventurous. In the 60 days he lived he met so many people.

“He was a really beautiful baby boy - a big boy who loved to sleep. He was generally very happy. In his last few weeks he started smiling, and would always give me a big smile before he went to sleep.

“My faith in God has brought me through this and I have had a lot of support of family and friends and the church. My mother flew over from Kenya to be with me.

“I was very proud to say his was mine. He had radiant eyes that transmit hope, joy and love. He will be greatly missed.”

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