The Report

I finally received the autopsy/coroner’s report in the mail.

The results were not what I expected. The results were not what I understood happened after speaking to the Coroner three weeks ago.

Cause of death: acute postnatal respiratory failure

Due to or as a consequence of: meconium aspiration, persistent pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary hemorrhage

Due to or as a consequence of: acute intrauterine hypoxic-ischemic injury

Due to or as a consequence of: cause unascertained

We had been under the notion that Autumn had a lung development issue that caused the respiratory failure. Instead, evidence shows, and the report clearly states, that she was deprived of oxygen in utero, and this caused everything that eventually led to the respiratory failure.

“This raises consideration that the infant’s postnatal course mainly was a consequence of an intrauterine hypoxic-ischemic event with central nervous system injury rather than due to a primary pulmonary pathology. The meconium discharge, thymic cortical histiocytosis, pulmonary hemorrhage and rapid development of postnatal marked lactic acidosis could all relate to an acute intrauterine hypoxic-ischemic injury.”

I’m left with so many more questions, which I was expecting. But I didn’t expect to find out that it was my placenta, my body, that caused her death. That’s what it really boils down to…it was not a congenital lung defect, but rather an injury to my otherwise perfect little girl that caused this.

How unfair this all is.