Selma Moukhfi Bell died on April 17th, 2009, after 27 minutes on this earth.
She seemed to be a healthy baby. The heart trace carried out over the preceding 16 hours had shown no sign of distress.
A post mortem was carried out, to find causes. In particular:
- Maybe Selma had been damaged during the caesarean section – a broken spine or skull fracture.
- There was the possibility of an inherited genetic or metabolic syndrome which would not allow Selma to survive outside the womb.
- The third possibility was an aggressive infection which overtook Selma in the final few hours of labour, after the waters had broken.
As it turned out, Selma was a perfect baby, inside and out.
It happens very occasionally that a baby dies for no reason. Its nobody’s fault and nothing could have been done to prevent it. At Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, where Selma was born, it happens about once a year. That’s one in every 6,000 births.
Queen Charlotte’s gave unbelievably brilliant care throughout the birth process. Project Selma exists to extend that gift to people who wouldn’t otherwise be so lucky.
The aim is that something good should come out of Selma’s untimely, mysterious death.
Talks from Selma’s funeral
Andy Bell introduces Project Selma
Dr Caroline Rogers gives a medical perspective on a mysterious death
