ROSELAND, N.J., Jan 05, 2021 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) The SUDC Foundation applauds final passage of Scarlett’s Sunshine on Sudden Unexpected Death Act. This legislation was introduced by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Doug Jones (D-AL) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and U.S. Representatives Gwen Moore (WI-04), Tom Cole (OK-04) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03) to combat sudden, unexpected infant and child deaths. The legislation was introduced in honor of Scarlett Pauley, who was lost to SUDC in January 2017 when she was just 16 months old.
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) is a category of death in children over the age of one year which remains unexplained after a thorough investigation and autopsy. Most often, SUDC occurs in otherwise healthy children during sleep. Approximately 400 children are lost to SUDC in the United States every year.
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Scarlett Lillian Pauley should be building snowmen and chattering about the holidays. She should be struggling with pandemic homeschooling. She should be asking a million questions.
But in 2017, the Pittsburgh toddler died at just 16 months old. There was no obvious disease to blame or tragic accident to hold responsible. Scarlett was one of more than 80,000 who have been lost to what’s known as SUDC sudden unexplained death in childhood and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome, the term for deaths that occur under the age of 1) over the last 25 years.