January 17, 2012 was the worst day of my life.

This is the day my three month old, always healthy, never-sick-a-day-in-her-life, smiley, happy, perfect daughter died.

For absolutely no reason and without cause, her father and I were treated like criminals, lied to, misled and threatened. In the end, just as in the beginning, there was no reason found for this treatment. She had no wounds or injuries.

The police and Medical Examiners involved did not follow the very clearly written Florida State statutes for the investigation of this kind of death. Additionally, they denied us the right to see our child, and for the initial 8 hours afterwards were interrogated extensively at a time that we needed to be surrounded by family and friends and be with each other.

Now as a way of “officially” not having to do their job a Medical Examiner in the State of Florida who does not believe in SIDS and doesn't want to do the work as it is detailed in Florida Statute 383.3362.
The biggest issue is that as the statute stands right now, paramedic, police and medical examiners are to follow a protocol that when an otherwise healthy infant dies for no apparent reason, there is to be a full investigation, and if no cause is found should be ruled as SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

In my case, if there had been no natural cause found, it would have been labeled  "Undetermined" as the Medical Examiner in my area thinks SIDS does not exist either.

The Medical Examiner in my area has reduced the SIDS rate to Zero within one calendar year of taking charge of the District M.E. Office, and suddenly the deaths attributed to unknown causes grew exponentially.

At this time there is no known cause for SIDS, and the definition of SIDS by the Center for Disease Control is the Exclusion of EVERY OTHER POSSIBLE cause, after a complete and thorough investigation.

Yet, somehow in 2011 there were 5 undetermined cases, yet no cases of SIDS. As an example, within 1 calendar year of him taking the reins in my district, the SIDS count dropped to Zero, as it had in the 2 Prior Districts  that he has run.

Medical examiners in the state of Florida are exempt from liability for damages done in in compliance of the very statute to which they are supposed to uphold.
Based on this, I have no case against the ME in our case. However, another ME who also feels that her personal opinion on SIDS is more important than what the CDC and even more importantly what the Florida statutes say, has gotten the Florida State Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs and the Florida House of Representatives Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee to create 2 bills to let her and others Not Do their job, by changing the laws!
I fully support an investigation of every infant death, and every decent parent wants to know the truth about what happened to their babies. There are ways this can be done, and if the law is left as it stands and the entire group of investigators and first responders followed it, at least in our case (as I imagine in many others), things would be different.

Public Servants should not be allowed to push policy for their own gain, good or agenda. From the very website of the Medical Examiner's District that i reside in the Mission Statement is as follows:

“The mission of the Medical Examiner’s office is to fulfill the needs outlined in F.S. 406, to be of service to families of the deceased and local government agencies. In short, our mission is to determine the cause and manner of death under certain circumstances. This mission requires the utmost objectivity irrespective of personal beliefs or emotional attachment to the circumstances of any particular case”.

This is not the case here in District 6 and the fact of the matter is, if this ME and any other in the state of Florida is currently ignoring the statutes as well as the mission statements of the offices they run, who is to say they will follow ANY rules?

Please help to tell the Florida State Senate to vote no on Bill 56. Here is the Bill: http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/0056

Please help in tell the Florida House to vote no on Bill 83. Here is the Bill: http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/0083

Here is how to contact them to tell them no. http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/myrepresentative.aspx

Please help Florida families who have just lost their most loved and cherished members to an unexpected death get answers and be treated with decency and compassion.

Please help Florida families at the worst time in their lives.

No other family should have to go through what we did.