OFFICIALS LEAD WORKSHOP ON CHILD DEATHS

The death of any person is a cause for sadness, but if a child dies as a result of a criminal act or accident it is a particularly tragic event.

For several years Missouri authorities have believed too many children who die are being buried without the cause of death ever being determined.

The concerns finally led to passage last year of House Bill 185, which requires each county in the state to set up a Child Fatality Review Panel. It requires that the death of any child up to and including the age of 14 be reported to the county coroner or medical examiner in the county in which the death occurred. The bill became effective Jan 1.

To help the Child Fatality Review Panels in the 114 counties and city of St. Louis comply with the law, the Missouri Department of Social Services is conducting a series of regional workshops to explain the requirements and mechanics of the law.

One workshop was held Wednesday at the Cape Girardeau Drury Lodge. Approximately 50 people, all members of review panels in eight Southeast Missouri counties, participated in the daylong activity. They included coroners, prosecuting attorneys, and members of law enforcement agencies, the Division of Family Services, the juvenile courts, and county health and medical professionals.

The workshop was conducted by Gus H. Kolilis, special agent with the Department of Social Services, and chief regional coordinator with the State Child Fatality Review Project.

Kolilis and other state employees who are helping implement the project are on temporary leave from their agencies because the General Assembly did not provide funding for the bill when it passed the measure in 1991.

"We want to know what is killing children in Missouri," Kolilis said. "You can't develop preventative strategies until you know how children die. That's the bottom line on this entire project."

Kolilis emphasized the review panels will not be involved in actual criminal investigations. "The panel is not an investigative body," he said. "It is merely a means to exchange sensitive and confidential information among the agencies that are normally involved in the death of a child."

Kolilis said House Bill 185 gives the various state and local agencies involved in child death occurrences a way to come together to share information. "It is a legal means for all of us to do what we have done informally for years: to gather together and exchange information. There is no bureaucracy or paperwork involved," he said."

Kolilis said that after Jan. 1, the death of any child that occurs in the state must be reported to the county coroner or medical examiner. After completing the required report, the coroner will consult with a specially-trained child pathologist to determine if an autopsy is necessary.

If an autopsy is needed and performed, the results are sent to the county review panel to determine if any additional action is required.

The panel may determine no action is required and the death report will be sent to the Department of Health for statistical purposes and the case is closed.

If the panel determines the death of the child should be reviewed, the team members will review the circumstances surrounding the death and recommend appropriate action, such as an investigation by the responsible agencies.

Kolilis said criteria that requires a review by the panel includes deaths that result from: firearms, possible self-inflicted injury, inadequate supervision, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, natural causes involving possible malnutrition or delay in seeking medical care, confinement, suffocation or strangulation, bathtub or bucket drowning, poisoning, suspected sexual assaults, and if a child is involved with Family Services.

Kolilis said hospital emergency rooms and funeral directors in Missouri and adjoining states will be contacted and advised of the reporting requirements.

Although a report must be prepared by the coroner in all deaths, not all of them will be reviewed by the panel, Kolilis said. If the death is determined to be from natural and, or, non-preventable causes, the report will be sent to the Department of Health and recorded in a statistical computer bank.

Kolilis said that's another reason for the review process; to make sure Missouri's child death statistics accurately reflect the actual cause of death.

"We want to find out everything we can about the circumstances of the death," he said. "By having this information, we can share it with the proper investigative agencies if it involves possible criminal action. If it was the result of an accident, we can educate parents or suggest product safety changes to manufacturers."