Gene mutation may be behind mysterious sibling deaths in eastern Turkey

A gene mutation has been detected in samples taken from a five-month-old baby girl of a family who saw three of their children die mysteriously in four months in the northeastern province of Kars, with several doctors saying this sort of mutation could lead to partial hearth enlargement, and thus immediate death.  

Samples taken from Gözde Güler, Zeynep and Hac? Güler's five-month-old toddler who died on May 21, were sent to a laboratory in Europe, with their test results showing a gene mutation in her heart cells, one which could cause immediate death as it widened sections of the heart, said Ebru Marzio?lu Özdemir, a doctor from the medical genetics department of the training and research hospital in the eastern province of Erzurum.

Özdemir said she thought the reason the Güler family's children died could be the genetic mutation detected in Gözde Güler's heart.

The family living in Tomarl? village in Kars' Arpaçay district has seen three of its children die this year. Three-and-a-half-year-old Aybüke Güler died on Feb. 21, 2015, five-year-old son Enes Güler died on April 5, 2015, and Gözde Güler died on May 21, 2015. So far the cause of their deaths has been an indeterminate mystery.  
The Arpaçay Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into the mysterious deaths, and the Güler family, in an effort to keep their only remaining child, seven-year-old child Irmak, alive, put in an application with the Hacettepe University Medical School Hospital in the capital Ankara with the support of the Kars Governor's Office and the Arpaçay District Governor's Office.

Doctors have been working to determine what caused three of the Güler family's children to die in a space of four months, while mother Zeynep Güler, 25,...