SIDS continues to baffle the medical researchers and pathologists. An article in the magazine Pediatrics recently discussed SIDS in twins. Thirty-two cases were examined, and “no cause of death was found despite complete postmortem investigations.” Ten other cases of SIDS in twins were researched by university clinics in Antwerp, Paris, and Rouen. The findings? “The cause of SIDS remained unexplained after a complete autopsy.” The mystery cause, or causes, continues.

However, as shown in another report, in 11 of 42 pairs who were compared, “the future SIDS victim was more than 300 g lighter than his or her surviving sibling.” The conclusion was that the only items differentiating the SIDS infants from the control infants were a “lower mean weight and height at birth, the previous occurrence of cyanosis [bluish skin and mucous membranes caused by lack of oxygen in the blood] or pallor during sleep, and the recurrent profuse night sweats.”

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Parents Viewed With Suspicion

The enigma surrounding SIDS deaths has sometimes caused unnecessary pain and suffering to the parents. How so? Because outsiders, including sometimes the police and medical personnel, have viewed the death as highly suspicious, especially when it has occurred simultaneously in twins. And according to a survey covering over 47,000 births in Cardiff, Wales, between 1965 and 1977 there was a fivefold increase in the risk of SIDS in twins. Dr. John E. Smialek, writing in the medical journal Pediatrics, reported two exceptional cases that occurred five years apart in Wayne County, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.

He states: “The announcement of the deaths of the first set of twins resulted in an atmosphere of intense suspicion of the parents . . . by members of the medical community and other lay persons who were unaware of the existence of this phenomenon [SIDS].” That is easy to understand when we recall that SIDS has received major publicity only since 1975, when the U.S. government supported information and counseling programs on the subject. When a similar twins case of SIDS happened in Detroit five years later, there was much less suspicion. Professionals and the public were becoming informed.

Yet, even now, when so much more is known about the subject, Dr. Smialek admits: “Although SIDS is now widely accepted as a condition that parents have no power to predict or prevent, the occurrence of the simultaneous deaths of infant twins is a phenomenon that still evokes bewilderment and suspicion.”

But why should twins be more susceptible to SIDS? Pathologist Bernard Knight answers: “They are very often premature and are often under normal birth-weight. They more often need to spend the early part of their lives in special care units in maternity hospitals. . . . All these factors make them more vulnerable to sudden infant death.”