Sudden infant death syndrome: the role of the emergency room physician.

Prompt recognition by the emergency room attending physician of the occurrence of SIDS provides the opportunity to deal empathetically with parents, thus ameliorating to some degree their profound psychiatric trauma. Among the responsibilities of the emergency room physician are 1) talking with the parents, 2) obtaining postmortem examination permission and making certain that the results of the autopsy are promptly communicated to the parents and to the family physician, and 3) arranging follow-up psychologic support for the parents. Awareness of the frequency of the sudden infant death syndrome and of the potentially preventable psychiatric morbidity among parents by the emergency health care personnel can do much to reduce the tragic toll of SIDS.