In an effort to curb infant and child deaths in Faulkner, Conway and Perry counties, a group of multi-disciplinary professionals will meet under the membership of the Infant and Child Death Review program.
Their research and findings may be submitted at state level to enact legislation designed to protect and prevent deaths of children under age 18.
Faulkner County, the hub of the three-county program, is the pilot for Arkansas.
Arkansas is the 49th state in the nation, leaving only Idaho, to formally implement a group of this kind according to Pamela Tabor, Arkansas’s ICDR director.
Legislation on Act 1818, which implements the program, began in 2005.
The Act creates and charges the review panel to investigate infant and child deaths, to develop greater understanding of the cause and incidents leading to each death, to develop methods of preventing infant and child deaths, as well as to identify gaps in services to children and families.
Arkansas is “off the charts,” Tabor said, when compared to national data displaying unintentional injury deaths of children ages 1-18.
“This is something we’ll be looking at,” she said.
Arkansas also leads national rates in birth defect deaths and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Faulkner County deaths in children under age 1 between years 2000 and 2007 numbered 77 according to ICDR data.
Short gestation deaths numbered 36, birth defects, 16, and unknown causes, 25.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome deaths contribute to the unknown category. Tabor said that half of all deaths under age 1 are listed as SIDS.
Faulkner County deaths in children ages 1-19 numbered 76. The highest cause of death, motor vehicle crash, claimed 30 children.
Other accidents with injuries numbered 21, and instances of non-injury that claimed lives numbered 22.
Panel members will begin reviewing information on deaths occurring from the date Jan. 1, 2010 as early as November.
Representatives from relevant sectors met at the Faulkner County Courthouse Thursday to hear an overview of the panel’s mission.
The core team in Faulkner County will be led by Coroner Patrick Moore. other members, yet to be determined, will be from law enforcement, the Department of Child and Family Services, the public health sector, pediatrics or other health care, emergency medical services and social sectors.
Tabor said that the team will consist of between 10 and 15 volunteer members who will meet quarterly.
Moore said that their work would not done in the public eye.
Faulkner, Conway and Perry county data will be fed into a system that is used by the parties that prosecute, prevent or educate on behalf of the cause.
“Each time there is a death, the team will meet over it, retrospectively,” said Tabor.
Moore said that there are typically 20 child or infant deaths per year in Faulkner County and Conway, with half occurring in the county and half in the city.
Each panel member is to provide information pertinent to the total review of circumstances and details of actions or inactions leading to the death of a child.
Tabor said that once a death case has closed, members will bring relevant testimony such as fire reports, 9-1-1 audio, death certificates, death scene investigation interviews, legal expertise, child development expertise, and family history.
Public health data with records, and accounts from first responders will also be used in reviewing cases.
“This isn’t a group designed to point fingers. this is about finding those gaps and correcting deficiencies in situations that cause child deaths,” Moore said.
Tabor echoed Moore, saying that the panel is to focus on prevention and “not criminal investigation, not prosecution, not agency oversight…”.
(Staff writer Courtney Spradlin can be reached by e-mail at or by phone at 505-1236. to comment on this and other stories in the Log Cabin, log on to thecabin.net. Send us your news at thecabin.net/submit)