Medical examiner investigates two co-sleeping deaths

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office is investigating two separate infant deaths that appear to be linked to co-sleeping.

On Friday, April 19th, paramedics were called to a home near 58th and Hampton in Milwaukee just before 11 p.m. Five-month-old Jeremiah Walker was found face down and unresponsive in a bed with his twin sister. The medical examiner's report says the sister's stomach was on top of the boy's head. Jeremiah's father performed CPR. Paramedics attempted several times without success to get a breathing tube into the child. The child died shortly before midnight. The medical examiner's report says "no trauma was noted."

On Sunday, April 21st, two-month-old Kamari Scott died in the Children's Hospital emergency room. He had brought there from his home near 40th and Florist in Milwaukee where he had been co-sleeping with his mother in an adult bed. The medical examiner's report says the child had been fed at 2:45 a.m. and then placed in a Pack 'n' Play to sleep. Around 4 a.m., the infant woke up and the mother told investigators she "then picked him up and placed him in bed next to her on his back." When the mother woke up around 6:30 a.m., she found the boy "to be unresponsive in the bed next to her. She called 911 and place (the infant) in his crib." The child died shortly before 8 a.m. There were no signs of injury or trauma.

FOX6 News spoke to family members the home. They were obviously devastated and declined to be interviewed.

In both of these cases, the official manner of death is under investigation.

Late Monday afternoon, the medical examiner's office released reports about another death in the Walker family. We've learned Joseph Walker was co-sleeping with his parents when he died in 2007.

The United Way hopes to prevent infant deaths through its "Healthy Birth Outcomes" initiative.

"We're working very closely with the city of Milwaukee and particularly the health department and the mayor's office in support of their bold goal to reduce infant mortality by 10 percent among all families and by 15 percent among African-Americans by the year 2017," said Nicole Angresano of United Way of Greater Milwaukee.

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