What a tragedy. This family must be devastated.
FWIW, I have no opinion on this case. I think the ME needs to release
all of his findings first. Here are a few links to information about SIDS and twins. The first link comes to the conclusion that both children dying of SIDS is rare, however the second link is the sids-network and goes into detail of what can happen when both twins die. I really chopped up the article because of copy right laws, so you might want to take a look.
JMHO
fran
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10401808&dopt=Abstract
Sudden infant death syndrome among twins.
http://sids-network.org/fp/wood_marla10.htm
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000
Twins and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Each year, an estimated 7,000 babies die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), in the United States alone. More children die of SIDS than Aids, Cancer, Heart disease, Child Abuse, Cystic Fibrosis and Muscular Dystrophy combined (Holcher 1). It is by far the deadliest and the most mysterious syndrome known to effect children. Very little is known about SIDS, however, statistics show that 95 percent of SIDS deaths happen between 2 and 4 months of age.
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The rate for SIDS deaths in singleton babies is 1 baby per thousand births. The rate for SIDS deaths in twins has been as high as 9 babies per thousand births, but is usually documented as 4 deaths per thousand babies. (Beal 1039).
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He also examined the time span of the deaths, and found that in 9 of the 17 cases, the co-twins died on the same day, while the remaining 6 died within one month of their twin (Spiers 5). His data suggests that the time period when family should be most concerned about the surviving twin is one month.
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The simultaneous death of both twins raises suspicion toward the parents or care givers. Dr. John E. Smialek, is considered to be a well-known expert in the studies of Simultaneous SIDS in twins. In his studies, he has encountered several cases of simultaneous SIDS as a respected Medical Examiner in the Baltimore, Maryland area. He has personally worked on 9 of these cases. In Wayne County, Mi., two cases of simultaneous SIDS occurred within 5 years of each other. During the first case the death of the twins resulted in an atmosphere of intense suspicion of the parents that was verbalized by members of the medical community and other person who were unaware of this medical phenomenon. The twins' deaths were labeled as SIDS after intense investigations involving both local police agencies and the medical examiner. After numerous tests came back negative, the cause of death was listed as SIDS (Smialek 817). When simultaneous twin deaths