I read about a mother who fell asleep while bfing her baby & woke to find the baby had been smothered & passed away. She blamed it on BFing. But really I think it was just a freak accident & maybe an overtired mother. From memory it was in the UK.

The baby should have been able to breath while at the breast. To me this sounds like a case of poor positioning of the baby during the feed. If the mother is on the slower side & had not been shown correctly the right way to do it, I can see how this has happened. Like you said she may not have realised that the baby was not breathing & just thought it was sleeping.

I sure hope everything works out ok for the little baby & all those involved.