Panel reviews hundreds of Conn. children's deaths

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Almost 600 children's deaths in Connecticut over the last 10 years were preventable, including more than 100 involving victims of homicide and dozens of other pre-teens and teenagers who committed suicide, according to a new report.

The Connecticut Child Fatality Review Panel's report, released Wednesday, said preventable accidents such as drowning, fatal car crashes and suffocation accounted for 400 of the 1,529 deaths reviewed since January 2001, or about 40 percent.

Suicides accounted for 77 deaths, not including five recorded in the last two months, state Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein said.

Natural deaths from medical causes such as illnesses, heart problems or other health conditions accounted for 840 of the deaths, the highest number.

Milstein, who is chairman of the review panel, said the 77 suicides included children as young as 10 and that some are believed to be linked at least partly to bullying. The report praises state and local officials for their increased focus on bullying in recent years, but Milstein said the suicides still highlight the need for adults to monitor children's behavior closely and be sure they get support and services if they are struggling.

"It certainly gives us pause and makes us very concerned," Milstein said Wednesday. "I think there's a message here for all of us that children really depend on caring, consistent adults in their lives, so it's really important to be vigilant and supportive."

But there was some good news in the report, too: Accidental deaths comprised 31 percent of 2001 child deaths reviewed by the panel, but had dropped to 20 percent by 2010.

Milstein said that suggests graduated driver licensing for teens, education on safe sleeping environments for infants and other prevention programs may be helping.

"It's a great accomplishment to see those numbers go down, but any child's death is a tragedy and there are children and families behind all of this data," she said.

The Connecticut General Assembly created the Connecticut Child Fatality Review Panel to examine the circumstances of unexplained or unexpected deaths, particularly in cases when state agencies or state-supported agencies were involved with the families or should have been.

The new report is more sweeping, though, and is its first broad review of trends and statistics since it was established in 1995 after a 9-month-old girl was raped and murdered by her mother's boyfriend.

The new report says about half of the 106 homicides of children in Connecticut between January 2001 and January 2011 were children ages 12 and younger, and the other half were teenagers from 13 to 17. Four of every five were black or Hispanic, and nine of 10 were boys.

The majority died of head trauma, blunt force injuries and other abuse, and often at the hands of a relative or caregiver. Homicides committed by strangers were rare except in high-profile cases, including as the 2007 Cheshire home invasion in which 11-year-old Michaela Petit and her sister, 17-year-old Hayley, were killed by two paroled felons now on death row.

The Child Fatality Review Panel's new report also found:

— Of the 1,529 deaths reviewed, the causes of 106 remained undetermined. Of those, about three-quarters were infants whose deaths previously would have been classified under Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, for which the diagnosis has become more stringent.

— Car crashes accounted for more than half of the 400 accidental deaths over the 10-year period, with the majority of those car crash victims being 16 or 17 years old. Drowning was the second leading cause of accidental deaths, followed by suffocation, fires and drug overdoses.

— Another 242 deaths were not included for study in the review panel's report because those children either were stillborn or were born prematurely and died within 24 hours.