‘I have analyzed everything’: Georgetown mom shares personal tragic story of SUDC
GEORGETOWN, Ky. (WTVQ) — Losing a child is a loss like no other, but losing a child and having no explanation as to why they died is unimaginable.
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood is a category of death in children ages 1 to 18 that is unexplained even after an autopsy, according to the SUDC Foundation.
A Georgetown woman who experienced this very tragedy shared her story with ABC 36.
“His laundry is still in his basket,” Britney Coyle said.
And clothes she was sorting through because her boy was getting bigger, the diapers on the changing table she just picked up from the store the day before, the toys piled — this room is where she can let go.
“Sometimes I just come in here and sit and cry.”
Coyle experienced something only about 400 other mothers experience in the U.S. Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood is the terrible title given to kids ages 1 to 18 who die for no reason. How would a mother deal with that?
“I have analyzed everything, what did I miss, what could we have done differently,” she said.
Her doctor says nothing could have been done, that an autopsy revealed a healthy almost 2-year-old boy.
“It’s scary to tell people about because you don’t want to scare people but at the same time, I want to raise awareness and let people know this does happen so we can try to figure out why,” she said.
Sullivan, or Sully, Coyle thought was just sleeping in on Dec. 10 of last year.
“Finally I started getting concerned that he wasn’t up yet and checked on him and that’s when I found him,” she said.
Her two other children had followed her into the room.
“So my 4-year-old was in the room when I found him, he had a lot of questions and my daughter didn’t say much,” Coyle said. “It’s been hard for them.”
Pictures cover the walls. Coyle says they help — and so did a certain bird one December night before Christmas.
“A cardinal flew in and flew back and forth between the Christmas trees and it landed on his picture so that was wild. We like to see the cardinals in the backyard too,” she said.
Answered prayers — and hope for answers for Sully.
