Baby's unexplained death leaves parents and coroner baffled after 10p coin is found in his oesophagus

Hayden David Lewis Matthews tragically passed away at Royal Cornwall Hospital in 2023. An inquest held at Cornwall Coroner's Court today (Monday, January 20) sought to establish the circumstances around his unexplained death.

An inquest has heard that a baby whose death remains unexplained had swallowed a 10p coin before he died. Hayden David Lewis Matthews passed away at Royal Cornwall Hospital in 2023.

An inquest into his death was held at Cornwall Coroner's Court on Monday (January 20). The court heard that Hayden was born in May 2022 and was generally a fit and healthy baby.

He lived between Truro and Redruth with his separated parents, Kristy Davies and David Matthews. He was in the care of his father for around six weeks before his death, who described his son as happy and himself hours before passing.

The inquest, held by senior coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Andrew Cox, heard how on the evening of his son's death Mr Matthews had taken Hayden and driven to collect his new partner and her son and bring them to the hospital as her son had injured his foot.

He said Hayden was alert and clapping for the first 20 minutes of the car journey but soon went quiet leading him to think he had fallen asleep. He collected his partner and child and continued to the hospital.

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Shortly after arrival at the hospital, a nurse noticed Hayden was looking unwell in his car seat while they were in the waiting room. She took him into a side room and signalled the emergency buzzer. Emergency staff made attempts to save his life but he died later that evening.

Mr Matthews had explained how Hayden had been suffering from some chest concerns in the past couple of months but was taking treatment and things were improving. The inquest heard how both Hayden's mother and father had taken him to the GP surgery concerning this.

After his death, the Devon and Cornwall Police public protection unit was alerted by the coroner and attended Royal Cornwall Hospital, in Truto carry out a full and thorough investigation. Nothing suspicious was found.

A post-mortem carried out by a forensic pathologist found Hayden had no signs of physical or psychological illnesses or concerns that would explain his death. It did, however, reveal a foreign object inside his oesophagus.

This was later found to be a 10p coin believed to have been there for some time due to discolouration. It was deemed unlikely it would have been swallowed or inhaled recently.

Mr Cox, as part of his conclusion into the death, said everything he would expect a responsible parent to do had been done for Hayden - including visits to the doctor and treatment. He added that if the baby died as a result of swallowing a coin he would expect perforation of the oesophagus and an infection, which did not occur.

"While the finger of suspicion points at the 10p coin, actually what we would expect to be there if the death had resulted from the 10p coin is not there," he said. "There isn't the perforation that would lead to the infection and sepsis. Also, we have absolutely no idea when or where or how the coin has got where it was found."

He said it appeared to be a death from an unascertained cause and recorded an open conclusion into the death.