A little girl who was “full of happiness” tragically died for unknown reasons after her mum found her unresponsive on the sofa. Medina Al-Kathiri, three, was a restless sleeper and often wished to sleep in the living room with her dad’s blanket, who she missed as he was serving time in custody.
On the morning of January 3, 2022, her mum Francesca Fenton found her “stiff” and “blue everywhere” at the family home in East London and frantically contacted the emergency services. Despite the best efforts of paramedics, she was pronounced dead at 8.52am. Despite an “extensive” post-mortem examination however, her cause of death is unascertained after no injury or natural disease was found.
An inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard that there had been complications at Medina’s birth, after a midwife was unable to check her heartbeat. Francesca was rushed to the Royal London Hospital for an emergency caesarean, which she described as “traumatic” for both her and baby, and when she was born, Medina was not breathing. However, when she was discharged from hospital, no congenital abnormalities were noted and she joined her siblings at home.
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Francesca told the inquest: “She seemed like a normal baby, she could sit up at the right time, she was able to crawl and walk. Over time, I started to notice that my happy child was not giving me the contact, didn’t want to socialise with the family, she wanted to sit and rock herself on her own.
“I could see that my daughter wasn’t normal, I have two other daughters previous to Medina. they told me sometimes children are late developers and I said ‘what about the rocking and the not giving eye contact or not wanting to cuddle?’. It was only from me and my husband perseverance that Medina grew.”
Medina’s family suspected that she was autistic, as she struggled with noises and would become over-stimulated. She was also non-verbal despite her parents’ efforts, and at the age of three, was only able to say the words “egg” and “hug”. Rather than allow herself to be hugged, Medina had developed her own “quirks of affection”, which involved stroking or touching her family’s hair.
Her tearful mum described Medina as “the most amazing little girl”, saying: “She was so quiet, so caring, so gentle, full of happiness and joy. She was always smiling, always giggling. She was a pleasure to have around and we all miss her dearly.” She told MyLondon: “She just had the most beautiful way about her, she was so quiet. She’d come and stroke your hair to show her way, she was always smiling.”
After enjoying a party in Yorkshire on January 2, the youngster had spent the drive down to the family home in Whitechapel “giggling” with her two sisters. Before bed, she had been seen playing with a toy snake and had eaten some chocolate brioche, before she was tucked into the sofa after eating two sleeping gummies.
Medina was a restless sleeper and would often wish to sleep on the floor of the landing or in the sitting room. Her mum said: “She enjoyed sleeping on her dad’s blankets and she had been sleeping on the hallway in the landing where we have pictures of the family and she would touch pictures of her dad for comfort.” At the time of Medina’s death, her dad was serving time for custody following previous incidents of domestic abuse, and is currently the subject of a restraining order against Francesca.
After spending time with her sisters, she was tucked into the blankets on the sofa in her Frozen pyjamas, with her mum saying “there was nothing unusual” in the hours before her death. The following morning however, she did not awaken after her sisters entered the room to watch TV.
“That’s when I went up to Medina and put my hand on her and I instantly knew there was something wrong because she felt stiff. I remember taking her blanket off and she was blue everywhere,” her mum emotionally told the court. “Straight away, I ran for my phone, I couldn’t speak. All I could do was scream for help and I just kept saying ‘please someone help me, my baby is dead’.”
Both paramedics and police officers rushed to the scene and despite their resuscitation efforts, Medina was tragically pronounced dead. Metropolitan Police officer Matthew Burt noted that the “property was clean and tidy” and there were no concerns for the welfare of the other children present.
Due to previous incidents between Medina’s parents, CCTV was requested but showed that nobody had entered the property after the family’s return from Yorkshire and nobody was seen leaving the premises in a haste. It was concluded that her death “was still an unexplained death but not suspicious”.
The inquest also heard from Robert Bielby, of Children’s Social services for the Borough of Tower Hamlets, who said that the family were known after previous domestic incidents. Medina and her siblings were made the subject of child protection plans in September 2020, however, both parents engaged with support services and they were not considered to be in any “significant harm” by July 2021.
A social worker noted that Medina’s needs were met and appropriate safety measures were in place at the family home, that it was comfortable and her mum supported her with “emotional warmth” and had sought assistance for Medina’s delayed development. Speaking to MyLondon outside, Francesca said that she had attended numerous meetings with a speech and language therapist and had sought to have her daughter tested for autism.
She was made the subject of frequent waiting lists, and received a notification after Medina’s death, to say that an appointment had been scheduled for eight months in the future. A post-mortem examination by Dr Samantha Levin found “no development abnormality, no signs of trauma” as well as normal signs for growth, colouring and no signs of a seizure. An internal examination found that her organs were normally developed and whilst there was some evidence of gastric content in large airways, these were not present in smaller airways.
She told the court that as she was unable to find “any injury or natural disease or illness”, Medina’s death could be attributed as a sudden unexpected death of a child or a result of an underlying genetic cardiac disorder. Her cause of death was given as 1A) unascertained, a sudden unexplained death in childhood.
Concluding the inquest, Senior Coroner Mary Elizabeth Hassell said: “The evidence that I’ve heard is that Medina was put down on the couch by her mum in the early hours of the third of January. She was found on the couch that morning and she was unresponsive.
“Despite a full investigation by the police and an extremely full post-mortem examination, her cause of death has not been ascertained. There were no signs of injury, natural disease, or illness. It is possible that she had an abnormal rhythm of heart and I do recommend that family members visit their GPs just to be on the safe size.
“In terms of the determination, the only appropriate determination is an open one on the basis that I don’t have enough evidence that could lead to a determination. I’m being truthful in saying I don’t know how Medina came by her death,” she said.
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