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Child Fatalities Decrease 10% from Previous Year

December 13th, 2014 by WCBC Radio

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) today released a report showing that unexpected deaths of children in Maryland decreased from 302 in 2007 to 171 in 2013, a decline of 43%.  Had the numbers of unexpected deaths remained at the 2007 level, more than 600 additional children would have died during this period.  Unexpected resident child deaths are determined each month by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).  The manner of these deaths is determined to be natural, homicide, suicide, accidental (including motor vehicle accidents), or undetermined. These cases are reviewed by multidisciplinary local teams overseen by a multi-agency state team to make recommendations that may prevent future deaths. Consistent with the trend in unexpected deaths, data from Vital Statistics also show an overall reduction in deaths among children in Maryland from 988 in 2007 to 696 in 2013, a decline of 29.5%.

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