By Luke Voogt
A recent finding could help save babies from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) thanks to the efforts of Geelong charity River’s Gift.
River’s Gift funded an Australian study, the first of its kind outside the US, which confirmed a link between abnormalities in serotonin and SIDS.
Karl Waddell and partner Alex Hamilton started the charity after their son River died of SIDS six years ago, and have raised about $700,000 since.
“It’s incredibly humbling and heart-warming to know that the flame of River’s legacy is burning very strong,” Mr Waddell said.
The University of Adelaide research replicated findings from a US study, which first discovered the link between SIDS and serotonin a decade ago.
Serotonin is a neurochemical that helps regulate sleep and control the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, among other functions.
Mr Waddell hoped the findings would one day lead to a cure for SIDS.
“It validates our efforts – saving little babies’ lives and ensuring that parents won’t have to go through the pain that we did,” he said.
“If they’re able to replicate the same findings in two separate cohorts, that’s very scientifically powerful.”
Mr Waddell was in discussion with Deakin University’s school of medicine to base SIDs research in Geelong, he said.
Rivers Gift established a fellowship which funded the research of PhD student Fiona Bright who investigated 41 cases of SIDS deaths.
Dr Bright, who graduated last Thursday, found that serotonin abnormalities could impair brain stem function in infants.
“This could lead to an inability of a SIDS infant to appropriately respond to life-threatening events, such as lack of oxygen supply during sleep,” she said.
SIDS is the sudden unexpected death of an infant under one year of age, which is unexplainable through a thorough investigation or autopsy.
It is the leading cause of death in infants between one month and one year old in Australia and the developed world.
