During the two-week inquest which began in Christchurch this morning, Coroner Ian Telford will hear from Turany and Farmer and a number of doctors and police involved with Soul\u2019s death and the criminal investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat has never been established was how Soul received those injuries and the circumstances of his death,\u201d Telford said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere there are shadows, we are there to turn on the lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a tough couple of weeks for everybody but we will get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baby Soul Turany died in Christchurch in 2014.<\/p>\n
Emergency services were called to the property where Turany was living with her baby at Burnham, 30km south of Christchurch, at 6.45am on August 30, 2014. <\/p>\n
They were told Soul had suffered a head injury and was having difficulty breathing.<\/p>\n
The baby was flown to Christchurch Hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
His injuries were not survivable, and he was taken off life support just after 3am the following day.<\/p>\n
Police then launched a homicide investigation, stating Soul\u2019s injuries were non-accidental. <\/p>\n
The only people at the house when Soul was hurt were Turany and Farmer.<\/p>\n
They split up soon after the little boy died. <\/p>\n
Coroner Telford explained that his role was to establish \u201cas far as possible\u201d the cause and circumstances of Soul\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t sit here as a judge in the classic sense … it\u2019s not my role to find who was liable or to discipline anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to work out what\u2019s happened. Another important function of my role is to make recommendations to help prevent future deaths occurring in similar circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coroner Telford began the inquest by paying tribute to Soul.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to acknowledge and honour the one who is at the centre of everything we\u2019re doing here, and that is, of course, Soul,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis life was short, but he was precious. He was a gift to the world for every second of the three months, 22 days that he lived.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coroner Ian Telford is overseeing the inquest into the young boy’s death. <\/p>\n
The coroner said the fact that more than a decade had passed between Soul\u2019s death and the inquest was an \u201celephant in the room\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been an extraordinary delay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m conscious that on Saturday, by my calculation, Soul would have been 12. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the time or the place to get into why there has been such a delay \u2013 suffice to say, there has been. I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coroner Telford said inquests were always hard for everyone involved, but assured that probing Soul\u2019s death was necessary. <\/p>\n
\u201cAn inquest is an important process. At its core, we hold inquests to try and understand, because of our society\u2019s desire to protect the lives of others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to ask questions … and I know there has been concern expressed about the stress involved in participating in this … and the next weeks may well be challenging for different reasons. <\/p>\n
\u201cInquests always are. Even for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coroner Telford said he had a \u201creasonable idea\u201d about the cause of Soul\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
However, what has never been established is how Soul was injured. <\/p>\n
He said the inquest was a chance to inquire \u201ccarefully into that\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot shy away from a simple truth, I am Soul\u2019s coroner. My core responsibility is to him, shining a light into the shadows that surrounded his death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soul’s mother Storme Turany posted a number of photos of her baby online in the lead up to the inquest. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Jamie O\u2019Sullivan, counsel assisting Coroner Telford, outlined Soul\u2019s short life and death.<\/p>\n
He was born on May 9, 2014, to Turany and Corey Neligan. <\/p>\n
By the time he died, Turany was in a relationship with Farmer. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the early hours of the morning of August 13, Soul became unsettled, and later that morning, emergency assistance was sought through Healthline and emergency services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoul became unresponsive. Emergency responders attended, resuscitative efforts were undertaken, and Soul was transported by helicopter to Christchurch Hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite specialist medical intervention, Soul\u2019s condition deteriorated, and he died in the early hours of August 14.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan said a postmortem examination was conducted and a pathologist concluded that Soul died as a result of blunt-force impact head injury.<\/p>\n
His skull was fractured.<\/p>\n
He had a traumatic injury to his brain stem and spinal cord.<\/p>\n
He had a widespread lack of oxygen and reduced blood flow to his brain.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoul suffered a serious head injury caused by a hard impact, resulting in a fracture to the back of the skull,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Soul\u2019s presentation involved serious and unexplained injury, New Zealand Police investigated. That investigation extended over a significant period and involved scene examinations, forensic analysis, medical review and interviews with a large number of witnesses.\u201d <\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan said alongside Soul\u2019s mother, former partner and police, the Coroner would also hear evidence from medical experts, including a neurosurgeon, pathologist and radiologist.<\/p>\n
He would also hear from a neighbour who rushed to try and help Soul on the day, Plunket and Karitane workers, and Turany\u2019s sister. Her midwife may also give evidence. <\/p>\n
Soul’s – and with his father Corey Neligan. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The first witness was Simon John, a consultant neurosurgeon. <\/p>\n
He said Soul was \u201cdying by the time he reached the emergency department\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was \u2026 most probably unconscious or significantly affected from the moment of impact,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He said there was no way a 16-week-old baby could have moved by himself in a way that would cause the injury. <\/p>\n
And it was \u201cnot plausible\u201d that Soul\u2019s injuries were caused by a fall from a couch, a changing table or a bed. <\/p>\n
John said the injury was \u201cnot something that happened and the person didn\u2019t realise it was a bad thing they\u2019d done\u201d.<\/p>\n
He could not rule out Soul being injured more than once in his short life.<\/p>\n
The fatal injury, he said, would have been inflicted four to 12 hours before Soul reached the hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe MRI showed that the vast majority of the brain \u2013 so all of the thinking or processing parts of the brain, the frontal lobes, temporal lobes, parietal lobes, occipital lobes \u2013 were all dead or dying,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only parts of the brain that were alive or with an adequate blood flow were the central deep processing parts of the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said multiple scans and procedures were carried out on Soul to make sure the diagnosis was correct.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal to tell a family that a 3-month-old is going to die and I don\u2019t take that sort of decision lightly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo all I\u2019s are dotted and T\u2019s crossed to make sure that we\u2019ve really looked for every possible explanation, anything that\u2019s potentially reversible or changeable … to just really make sure we\u2019ve done everything that we could or should have done before giving devastating news. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe clinical staff that consisted of an intensive care unit, a pediatric service, and a neurosurgical service, all found that this was a non-survivable head injury. There was nothing that anyone could do that would reverse that.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle babies don\u2019t have resilience from a head injury perspective … this is a really catastrophic, high-energy injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inquest continues on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the two-week inquest which began in Christchurch this morning, Coroner Ian Telford will hear from Turany and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[80515,6794,109555,74217,4487,12629,634,2842,305,106,15258,13999,296,13631,111,43,139,69,1118,2680,1534,3271,4918,211240,19054],"class_list":["post-410593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-80515","tag-baby","tag-birthdays","tag-catastrophic","tag-christchurch","tag-coroner","tag-death","tag-experienced","tag-have","tag-head","tag-injury","tag-inquest","tag-into","tag-never","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-opens","tag-saturday","tag-should","tag-soul","tag-turany","tag-turned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}