THE family of a 12-day-old baby girl who died suddenly have asked for medical tests to be carried out by experts – after an infant cousin lost his life four years ago.

Peter Kennedy told an inquest daughter Maddison had been happy and healthy before she was found unresponsive in a Moses basket by his partner Gemma at 5.30am on March 8.

He said he was awoken by his partner’s screams and rushed to resuscitate the baby, while an ambulance was called.

Mr Kennedy, who has two other children with his partner, said: “She was happy, she was okay, as far we knew.”

The baby’s unexpected death was the second to hit the family after Fletcher Kennedy, born to Mr Kennedy’s brother Sean and his partner Gemma Smith, died from natural causes in hospital in 2013.

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Alexander Kennedy, grandfather to both babies, has called for genetic tests to be carried out on samples from both Maddison and Fletcher so they can determine if any other youngsters in the family are at risk.

Mr Kennedy said: “We want to know for the future of our other grandkids because genetics have come a long way.”

The grandfather admitted the family may be “clutching at straws” but they needed answers after the deaths.

Dr Gauri Batra, a consultant paediatric pathologist at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, told the hearing such checks may be possible if samples from Fletcher had been retained following his inquest in 2014.

“I can take this back to our genetics department and discuss the two individual cases and see where that could go. But it would be dependent on whether samples from four years ago back are available.”

The pathologist said she had been unable to discover a clear cause of death for Maddison and it could be classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Recording a conclusion of death by unascertained natural causes, assistant coroner Mark Williams said: “There is nothing suspicious . There were no concerns from her being put down at 12.30am, to 5.30am when she had passed away.”

Following the 2014 inquest, Sean Kennedy and Miss Smith, then of Sherlock Close, Nelson, expressed concerns over her discharge from the newborns centre at Burnley General. Coroner Richard Taylor had said earlier he was satisfied with Fletcher’s care by staff at the maternity unit.