Mum’s distress at inquest verdict

HAPPIER times . . . Dallas with sister Madison

Decision hard to accept
HEARTBROKEN Claire Smith has refused to accept a jury’s verdict her son died of a heart condition hours after his third birthday party.

And she does not believe that Dallas — who wanted to be a policeman — has received “justice” after the five-day inquest.

Claire spoke out after a 10-man jury returned a verdict of natural causes on January 26, 2008.

They gave the cause of death as a cardiac arrhythmia — an electrical disturbance in the rhythm of the heart.

But holding her son’s “Bob the Builder” jacket, Claire told the Chronicle: “In my family, there is no history of heart failure, no baby deaths in 100 years. There’s none in his dad’s family either.

“I have been checked out, other family members have been checked out, nothing whatsoever was found. They are going to have to spend the rest of their lives worrying.”

A post mortem and forensic tests failed to find evidence of carbon monoxide poisoning as was originally feared after the family complained of feeling lethargic and unwell.

Safety checks at their home in Rochdale Road, Royton, also found no dangerous levels of the potentially fatal gas.

High levels of manganese were found in Dallas’s blood. But the inquest heard that this was probably because of contamination when the sample was taken.

The pathologist believed Dallas suffered a fit, caused by an arrhythmia, after hearing how his sister, Madison, had seen him throwing himself around their bunk beds and shaking before he died. Madison was so scared that she slept with her mum, who discovered Dallas dead the following morning.

However Claire, who held a lock of her son’s hair while giving evidence, still believes that Dallas suffered manganese poisoning, which safety campaigners fear may be released by appliances.

“Dallas was healthy, completely healthy, until two weeks before he died when his whole personality suddenly changed. He became this lethargic person,” she added.

“Me and both children slept for three days solid — it’s like that’s been completely forgotten about.

Madison, especially, has found this extremely distressing. She is still blaming herself.”

After the inquest, Claire picked a daisy for Dallas who she described as her best friend who had promised “not to grow up and leave her.”

She said: “He was a cheeky chappie, very happy and always on the go — he never even sat down to eat his dinner. He was never a naughty boy and never complained — no trouble whatsoever — and he never went anywhere without his fire engine.

“On the night he died, he gave everybody a kiss.”