Coroner investigates death of day-old baby at Royal Berks

Jay Holman died on August 2 and his identification was later confirmed by a doctor, the opening of an inquest into the baby’s death heard.

Heidi Connor, the senior coroner for Berkshire, said a preliminary cause of death given by the hospital had been “termination of pregnancy”.

“Jay was born on August 2 2024”, Mrs Connor said. “He was aged less than a day at the time of death.”

The coroner, sitting at Reading Coroner’s Court, adjourned the matter until September 16 for a full inquest to be concluded.

It was not revealed during the brief hearing on Tuesday who Jay’s parents were or where they usually resided. 

An inquest must be carried out whenever a person dies in circumstances which are suspected to be either unnatural of unexplained.

Separately, Mrs Connor also revealed she is investigating the deaths of two men who died of mesothelioma, a type of cancer that is usually related to asbestos exposure. 

David George Chant, a 75-year-old man who lived in Woodley, died at the Royal Berkshire Hospital on July 20.

Testing carried out during the course of his lifetime had revealed he had mesothelioma, Mrs Connor said. A full inquest into his death was due to be held on September 27.

The other case was Peter Hughes, of Slough, who died aged 75 on July 21 at Wexham Park Hospital.

A preliminary cause of death had been given as respiratory failure with an underlying cause of malignant pleural mesothelioma, Mrs Connor said, before adjourning the inquest at a date to be decided.

Mr Chant’s death and Mr Hughes’s death were not in any way related. 

Another inquest which was opened and then adjourned related to the death of Alba Guila Coppola, of Maidenhead, who passed away on July 30 at Wexham Park Hospital.

Mrs Connor described how the 87-year-old woman had suffered pneumonia and sepsis, with an underlying cause being a “a lot of fractures” and “frailty of old age”. Her inquest was scheduled to conclude on September 9.