Obese baby sitter collapses & dies, suffocating baby

ShadyTroll

What a freak accident.

A morbidly obese Long Island baby sitter accidentally smothered to death a month-old infant when she collapsed and died on the couch where the child was lying, authorities said yesterday.

Teresa Coffey, who was 5-foot-6 and over 200 pounds, was found on top of little Michael Baldwin III on Thursday at around 9:30 p.m. by the boy's horrified father, and both were pronounced dead at a hospital near the Greenlawn home.

"The woman was described as extremely heavy," said Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky. "She was extremely large-breasted . . . Because of the amount of flesh, it could have caused the baby to suffocate."

The boy's dad, Michael Baldwin -- a local TV personality -- ditched a broadcast when he couldn't reach the sitter by phone and raced home.

He found Coffey splayed out on the couch and looked all over for his son.

"I searched every room," Baldwin tearfully recounted yesterday. "I was saying his name, 'Michael! Michael!' "

When his search failed, Baldwin said he returned to the living room, where Coffey, 39, was "slumped on the couch, face down, her knees on the floor . . . I just had this funny feeling she was on top of him.

"I lifted her and he was underneath. He was lying on his back with his hands folded on his stomach.

"He was blue . . . I just grabbed him and called his name -- I knew he was dead."

Both were pronounced dead at Huntington Hospital.

Baldwin was taping his own show, "Diverse Long Island," when the freakish events unfolded.

Suffolk Police Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky said investigators believe the deaths were a "tragic accident" -- but were conducting autopsies and toxicology tests.

A bottle of prescription pills was found with Coffey, who was known to have health problems, Baldwin said.

Baldwin said he'd gotten a message three hours earlier from Coffey telling him to call her. She never picked up his return calls, and Baldwin, an anchorman for News 12 on Long Island, finally raced home.

"[Coffey] had been asking forever if she could watch my baby, because she couldn't have children," Baldwin said.

"She wanted to have kids so bad. I know she had health issues, but I thought she was OK."

Baldwin said his wife, Colby, is devastated by the death of their only child.

Coffey, who lived in Port Jefferson Station, was also married.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sitter_dies_and_lands_on_li_infant_H07ekglp8ZEoReC0jxN0sM?utm_campaign=OutbrainA&utm_source=OutbrainArticlepages&obref=obinsource

bornkiller

I wonder if Michael Baldwin will host the next season of "The Biggest Loser"?

LSA King

and they say obesity doesn't kill. :hrmph:

MayorofMonkeytown

Well thats MORBID obesity for you

Daktologist

LSA King wrote: »

and they say obesity doesn't kill. :hrmph:

Fucking this.

RemadE

Not a lot makes me go "wat"....but some people are just too fat for their own damn good. And others.
:facepalm:

Unknown

Wow, that must have sucked... I can't say I've ever been layed on by a fat person but I assume it would be horrible, sweaty and stinky. Definitely not the best way to die, and that shit just sucks balls.

dr rocker

As sad as it is, leaving your child with some one who is obese, on medication to keep them alive and has such underlying health or genetic issues that mean they cannot have children is never a good idea. Added to that the fact that "[Coffey] had been asking forever if she could watch my baby, because she couldn't have children," shows she had emotional issues.

So yeah, lets put this in basic terms. A person who natural selection had chosen not to breed who needed prescribed medication so she did not die who was also showing symptoms of mental illness was allowed to be solely resonsable for a month old baby.

Now, looking at the comments on the artical, we have this:



She looks fat to me. I think she is trying to deny the obvious - that the fat killed the kid - as she is fat herself. The kid was on a sofa. If someone of my build fell on a kid on a sofa, the kid might be crushed to death, but it would not be smothered. I weight pretty much the same as the person who killed the kid, just a few pounds under at the present moment probably, I do not get weighed much. On a soft but firm, moveable surface such as a sofa, I would would give a month old baby a very good chance of survival if I fell on the baby in the same way.

When you are made of blubber, an all enveloping, shape to fit chubster, no way a baby can escape. I would be like me being buried under 1 ton of sand - I would not be able to move at all.

Its at times like this, I wish I had a facebook, or a hotmail or an AOL so I could tell her how wrong she is. How she is hiding her own inadequacies, health and maybe delusional problems behind the death of a child. I could be as nasty as I want, as nothing is as nasty as justifying the death of a child as her - refusing to to accept that her weight can kill.

Its akin to a gun owner keeping fire arms on his front lawn and when some one gets shot saying 'I never pulled the trigger'.

People like her make me sick.