State Child Death Review Board releases annual report

TOPEKA (November 10, 2011) The Kansas State Child Death
Review Board released its annual report, analyzing statistics of
the deaths of children age 17 and younger in the year 2009. The
death of a child is always tragic, Kansas Attorney General Derek
Schmidt said. I appreciate the work of the State Child Death Review
Board in compiling this report so we can understand the trends and
focus resources where they are most needed to keep our children
safe. In 2009, 449 Kansas children died. This represents an 11
percent decline in deaths from 2008. Natural deaths remained the
cause in the majority of the fatalities, accounting for 321 of the
total cases. Of the natural deaths, 58 percent were infants younger
than 29 days. Prematurity and congenital conditions accounted for a
majority of those deaths. Fatalities from motor vehicle crashes
fell to 38 the lowest number since the Board began keeping
statistics and a 25 percent decrease from 2008. Suicide cases also
continued to drop from previous years, with eight in 2009. Homicide
deaths increased slightly from 26 in 2008 to 29 in 2009. The Board
is a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency volunteer board organized
within the Attorney Generals Office to examine trends and patterns
that identify risk factors in the deaths of children, from birth
through 17 years of age. The board is chaired by Assistant Attorney
General Christine Ladner. The report can be downloaded from the
Attorney Generals website atwww.ksag.org/page/child-safety.