Child safety reminder, in memory of a little girl

While reading my hometown newspaper online I noticed an obituary for a five year old girl who died in a tragic accident when her home television fell upon her. First, I offer my prayers and sympathy for the parents and their family who are dealing with what is known as the unbearable loss, the loss of a child. I have a pretty good idea how painful this is for them. While I am a safety freak, especially regarding children and pets, it is very hard for people to think of every possibility for danger in their home. One reason I am a safety freak is that I as a toddler had a close escape in a similar accident.

In our kitchen we had a tall open shelved metal cabinet, standing at least six feet tall, which we used as a pantry. While my mother was in the other room I wanted something on a shelf that was just a tiny bit above my head. Not wanting to call her (and I was actually not old enough to really be talking) I thought I could step onto the bottom ledge of the cabinet and reach the item. I did not realize that it was not attached to the wall, so as soon as I stepped on the edge of the cabinet, the whole cabinet fell face down toward me in a swift crash that was impossible to react to. My mother (having a virtual heart attack on hearing this) came running, expecting to find me underneath the cabinet, crushed, which is actually where physics would say I should have been found. But instead, I was flung the length of the cabinet backward, so that I was sitting stunned on the floor, crying, but totally unharmed and untouched by the entire length of the cabinet, the top of which lay at my feet. I swear I heard my guardian angel grit teeth. Anyway, most children are not so lucky as I and this incident made a great impression on me about how a child looks at objects in the house and yard and how to eye them in the same way in order to mitigate danger. As a result when I “child proof” or “puppy proof” a house I do a very thorough job.

Another incident I recall of how important it is to not lay babies on the floor, even if it seems an empty and safe room. Babies should always have a barrier around them to prevent them from rolling or crawling. My best friend visited and insisted on letting her baby, my godson, sleep on the carpeted floor of my guest bedroom while she took a break. She, experienced parent ha, told me that it was alright, that she did it all the time. I scanned the room with concern but eventually gave in to what she wanted. Sure enough, a short time later we found that he had rolled and managed to jam his head stuck underneath the radiator grill, which was eight feet away from where she had placed him and was the perfect size up from the floor for his head. This could have been an awful tragedy but fortunately this was in the summer when the radiator was not on and therefore hot, and also he did not jam himself face down so he could not breathe and could suffocate. If something had happened this would have been a freak accident that could not be foreseen, except, of course, like I said, as the “safety freak” I would not let a baby be alone in an open room space. In the old days when there was no crib people took a drawer out of a wardrobe, lined it with a blanket, and put that on the floor so the baby could not roll.

So, I am very sad for this little girl’s family at this terrible loss, and as all accidents, it is so unforeseen as to be stunning. The newspaper article reported that several thousand children are injured by falling television sets in a given year, so all we can do is pray this number is reduced as people read about this girl’s tragedy and heed my “auntie” “godmother” advice to baby proof, child proof and pet proof as much of your home and your yard as you can humanly think of. Each child is the irreplaceable treasure.