Child fatalities within Cuyahoga County increased by 25% in 2023 compared to the previous year, a new report found.
County leaders held a news conference Tuesday to discuss details of the report and present solutions for reducing the number of child deaths.
The report, issued by the Cuyahoga County Child Fatality Review (CFR) Board, found that 190 children in Cuyahoga County died in 2023. Of those deaths, 61% were due to natural causes, 18% were homicides, 15% were accidental, 3% were suicide and 3% were undetermined.
Infants accounted for 59% of deaths, making the infant mortality rate 8.8 deaths within the first year of life out of every 1,000 live births, the highest in a five-year period, according to the report.
Cuyahoga County's child mortality rate of 75.9 out of every 100,000 who did not reach their 18th birthday is 25% higher than the state of Ohio and 41% higher than the United States.
Gun violence
The report determined infants most commonly died from natural causes like illness or medical conditions, while adolescents "tend to die from external causes originating from an injury, such as a gunshot wound or motor-vehicle accident."
"We need to continue to lean in on the terrible tragedy of gun violence in our community, of gun traffic in our community, guns ending up in the hands of young children. We need to lean in on the state and others," said Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne.
Child deaths due to homicides increased by 48%, and deaths due to abuse and neglect reached an all-time high with a 67% increase, the report found.
“I think one of the numbers is the staggering increase in homicide deaths," said Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson. "These are primarily related to firearms and they're primarily young African American men. These are preventable, long-standing social issues that end up with a very tragic exclamation point to a life cut short.”
To reverse the trend, Gilson recommended examining issues including the role of mentorship and education in protecting youth from violence and determining how to reduce the flow of guns into the community.
The report also found that six children, all over the age of 13, died by suicide. Eighty percent of those deaths were from a gunshot wound.
Gilson said these results are not surprising.
"Suicide is another hiding in plain sight problem in that the incidence of suicide among minority youth in the United States has been on the rise for at least 10 years,” he said.
Gilson said to come up with prevention strategies, officials need to determine how youth are able to access firearms when they're in a vulnerable mental state. Some means of access could include using a parent’s weapon or purchasing guns at gun shows.
Meanwhile, sleep-related infant deaths decreased in 2023, accounting for 17 deaths in the county. Most died as a result of unsafe sleeping environments, followed by hazards in a sleeping area. Black infants are seven times more likely to die due to an unsafe sleep environment than all other races, the report said.
Racial inequities
Significant racial inequities also persist as Black mothers suffer an infant mortality rate over three times higher than white mothers. Black babies die from prematurity at a rate 3.72 times higher than white babies, according to the data.
"The infants who passed away were primarily boys. Because Black men are under attack sometimes and mothers have that stress of, 'What am I going to do with this child in this community?', we have to really live with that, sit with that and have those conversations about how we provide safe spaces," said Jazmin Long, CEO of Birthing Beautiful Communities.
First Year Cleveland, a program working to end infant mortality in Cleveland, is working with expectant mothers before their babies are born.
"Just to make sure we do everything that we can do to reduce stress, because stress and mental health are important to maintaining your pregnancy to full term," said Angela Newman-White, executive director of First Year Cleveland.
