Reports of a 3-month old baby, who has died from possible choking, while being fed by her father who was playing a football game on his phone, has been heard by the courts in Singapore this week.
The incident reportedly happened in October last year, whereby baby Reyhana Qailah Mohamad Shiddiq was being fed by her father, Mr Mohamed Shiddiq Sazali, who is now 27 years old.
The baby’s mother, Madam Nurraishah Mahzan (31), was said to have left her home to report for a urine test at the Clementi Police Division.
The father was said to be playing a football game on his mobile phone while feeding the baby girl with his left hand. He was apparently seated on a bed and Reyhana was on his lap.
Reyhana then started pushing the milk bottle away using her tongue but her father continued to play the game and placed the milk bottle inside her mouth. She began crying and started kicking, yet he kept on playing his game without looking his baby’s way.
Reyhana went silent and at about the same time, the baby’s grandfather walked in to find the baby motionless.
The grandfather attempted to perform CPR on the baby and she began to vomit milk. She was however still unresponsive, even after the Mother performed CPR once again after arriving home.
Paramedics arrived and took the child to a nearby hospital, where she later died.
According to reports, an autopsy found old injuries on the baby’s body, including fractures on her right ribs and skull but a pathologist said that the injuries would not have caused or contributed to her death.
The actual cause of death cannot be ascertained at this stage, but the final cause of death report did mention “smothering” or “suffocation”, and choking on milk may have been possible causes of the child’s death.