The Hamilton County Coroner says she cannot determine a cause of death for an infant brought to Bethesda North Hospital in September, days after it had died. Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco now says the child was a boy and that it is impossible to tell whether the child was born alive, let alone determine it's cause of death.
The 19 year old mother lived in Kennedy Heights with her mother and step-father. They brought the body of the badly decomposed newborn to Bethesda North Hospital on September 10th. Police went to the family's home days later to collect evidence but no charges have been filed.
Dr. Sammarco says due to severe decomposition, it was not possible to even determine if the baby had been born alive. Therefore she was not able to assign a cause or manner of death.
Pathologists at the office considered Accidental, Homicide and Natural manners of death, ultimately the case was assigned a cause and manner of Undetermined.
