The parents of a three-year-old boy who died in horrific circumstances have called for better safety messaging in the hope of preventing further similar tragedies.
When the parents of the little boy, whose name cannot be revealed, put him to bed for his usual afternoon nap on January 20, they could hear him “babbling.”
But a coroner’s court in Christchurch, New Zealand, heard that when the father went to check on his son at around 4pm, he was not in bed.
She found the boy “in front of the curtain with a rope wrapped around the front of his neck,” coroner Heather McKenzie wrote in her findings.
The father took the boy to his mother and they called emergency services and began CPR.
Paramedics arrived just five minutes later, but were unable to revive the boy. New Zealand Herald reported.
“His parents described him as their beautiful, cheeky, sweet little friend,” McKenzie said Monday.
“They are devastated and heartbroken to have lost him and they are also suffering to see (their daughter) crying for her brother.”
The parents of a three-year-old boy who died in horrific circumstances have called for better safety messages in the hope of preventing more similar tragedies (file image)
‘They want to prevent any other parents or families from experiencing the same thing and believe there should be better safety messages regarding blind cords.’
The family had been at the beach the morning of the tragedy and after lunch put the boy to bed.
“The day had been like any normal day, nothing was different and (the boy’s) behavior was normal for him,” McKenzie said.
‘(His father) believes he closed the blinds and curtain… and the bedroom door was locked. He heard the child ‘babbling’ to himself as he often does.’
The boy’s bed was set away from the wall and he often got up on his own if he woke up before his parents came to get him, sometimes hiding behind the curtain between the blinds.
The father told police the cord was not around his son’s entire neck, but only around the front.
“The cord was used to raise and lower the blinds. Normally (the child’s mother) reminded (the father) to raise the blinds and wrap them around the railing,” said the coroner.
“I didn’t think (the boy) had ever played with the rope before. Other than hiding behind curtains, he had never been known to jump or play with them.”
Coroner McKenzie said there was nothing out of the ordinary in the boy’s bedroom.
Although the boy would sometimes “pile up his pillows to reach into drawers and get his books,” he had not done so that day.
“It appears to me from the available evidence that (the boy) was playing in or near the hide-and-seek area, the rope became wrapped around the front of his neck and he was unable to get out,” McKenzie said.
“I don’t know how long he was there before (his father) discovered him. In all these circumstances, I consider (his) death to be a tragic accident.
“(The boy) was a much loved son and brother. He is greatly missed.”
In Australia, a mandatory standard applies to blinds, curtains and interior window fittings manufactured after 2010, but there are currently no similar mandatory safety guidelines in New Zealand.
Ms McKenzie said there were no recommendations she could make that went beyond those already made by coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale following the death of a 19-month-old boy from accidental suffocation on a Roman blind cord in 2018.
In that case, Ms Borrowdale said: ‘The family tragically affected by this death were unaware of the danger posed by the inner cords of the blinds, located at the back of the blinds.
‘Their custom-made blinds did not include any safety information.’
Ms Borrowdale quoted the co-author of a US study on deaths caused by window cords, Dr Gary Smith, who said: “It is not enough to give a message. The most effective strategy is to eliminate the problem by design, in this case by making only cordless blinds.”
He also cited advice from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which was published earlier Stricter rules were introduced in 2014..
A Christchurch coroner’s court in New Zealand heard that when the father went to check on his son at around 4pm, he was not in his bed (file image)
“The ACCC does not believe that parental education alone sufficiently mitigates risk,” it said.
Ms McKenzie said curtain cords should be treated with the same caution parents exercise around baths, swimming pools, the sea, lakes and rivers.
“Blind strangulation incidents can be fatal within minutes and can occur silently. In this respect, they are similar to child drownings,” he said.
‘Accessible blind cords should be considered as dangerous to small children as standing bodies of water.’
