Andrew McCawleyOMAHA (KPTM)- The loss of young life can be a devastating experience. For those who have gone through such a loss answers to why can be even harder to come by. Wednesday the state took a big step to answer the questions raised from unexpected infant deaths.
After years of working to develop a better way to investigate the deaths of young people, Attorney General Jon Bruning and County Attorney Don Kleine announced new guidelines.
"Our purpose for the guidelines was to establish the best protocol for all disciplines involved with child death investigations," said Don Kleine.
The guidelines will be used for kids up to three years old. In most cases it can be hard to find out why they died. State leaders are hoping this new checklist will help those investigations.
Kline says "The key is documenting evidence that is found at the scene or location of the child's death, getting everything we can to aid the physician who is going to determine the cause or manner of death."
Those are tools that will be available to anyone investigating a child's death.
"Our goal is to push this training though the investigative teams through the state which are part of the child advocacy center," says Gene Kline Past investigations by the Omaha police department on infant deaths played a big role in finalizing the new guidelines. They are lessons that will help other investigators across the state.
"This gives them an opportunity to learn from the trials and tribulations that we have gone through over the years and it really will help them do a better job and get some better conclusions as to why things happen and what we can do to improve," says Omaha deputy police chief Alex Hayes.
The state wants training done within 6 months. They hope it will promote health, safety and justice for Nebraska's children. The new guidelines were based on recommendations from the American academy of pediatrics, the centers for disease control and prevention, and the national association of medical examiners.
