Girl brain damaged from blind cords
A toddler was left brain damaged after she accidentally hung herself on a window blind cord in her bedroom.
Emily Warner, two, was found unconscious by her father, Jamie, who had gone upstairs to talk to his son, James, four.
He frantically tried to resuscitate her before paramedics arrived at the home in Royston, Herts, and managed to bring her back to life. Emily was taken to hospital where she spent a week in a coma but has severe brain damage and cannot walk, talk or feed herself.
To read more about this story click here… Accidental hanging
Can I just say first of all how sad we are to read this. Our hearts go out to the family. If you ever read this Warner family, please know you have a support group who will embrace you and support you in whatever you need.
It sickens me to read the comments articles such as this one have at the end of the story. Most of the comments are uneducated comments such as, “Mom should have tied up the cords!” or “Parents shouldn’t leave children unattended!” etc etc. Excuse me but the child was in her bedroom. The cords were at a level where she could not reach from the floor. When I read comments about parents leaving their children unattended in their bedrooms I don’t get it. Are the parents suppose to stay in the child’s bedroom and sleep on the floor? Oh wait if they sleep, then they are not watching their child right? Shame on us parents for sleeping! Shame on parents for aiding in another child’s mishaps while our other children are running around like wild animals! We should keep them in cages right? No, then we would be abusing our children!
I know personally hundreds of families who have lost children to cords. Every story is different but not a single one made me think that the parent was not “watching their child” good enough.
Let me just tell you some of the scenarios that happened when children were injured or killed.
- Parents put child to bed. They closed the door thinking the child was asleep. They opened the door to check on the child and the child was hanging by the window cord.
- A parent was cooking dinner while a child was watching TV. When she came to get the child to eat the child was hanging by a window cord.
- A parent woke up in the morning to find her child hanging in the family room. The child had woken up before the parent.
- A parent was using the bathroom while a child was caught in the cords.
- A parent was helping a child who was vomiting while her other child was caught in the cord.
- A parent was nursing her newborn while her older child was hanging in the same room.
THIS IS NOT A SUPERVISORY ISSUE, IT’S A PRODUCT ISSUE!!!
Many times these cords are tied up high. Many times the cords were shortened. At least 70% of these accidents occurred on operational cords. At least half of them on cords that were separated with tassels. The Industry calls those “safety tassels” but the tassels don’t make the cords ANY safer than they were 20 years ago which is why the death rate in the USA remains unchanged! So many comments are made that the parents should have tied up the cords! SOME PARENTS DID!!!! Their child still died. MY CHILD STILL DIED! My cords were tied up out of her reach. Tying up pull cords will NOT keep all strangulation hazards at bay especially inner cord strangulation. You can tie up those cords on a roman shade all you want but any child can still strangle to death on the hidden inner cords on the back of the shade which are at a level reachable by a child of any age.
To all of those hiding behind computer screens making stupid comments about how bad parents are please READ the story and ask yourself…is this REALLY what happened or is it what some reporter THOUGHT happened. What did the reporter leave OUT of the story? Many parents who tied up the pull cords had their stories published where the reporter never told the public the family tied up the pull cords and then at the end of the story told the public to tie up their pull cords! Hello??? If there are documented cases of children DYING after the parents tied up the cords out of the children’s reach, there is a HUGE problem.
I have been featured in so many articles all over the nation, I can’t even count and many of them had their facts wrong. Tying up cords is NOT a solution, cutting cords short is NOT a solution. Getting RID of the cords is the only solution at this time. We hope to see some new inventions of products that can enclose the cords so that you won’t have to go out and by new window coverings.
But for now, take them down and replace them with good ol’ fashion curtains or some other cheap alternative!
Today I hope all of you reading out there realize that how dangerous these cords are and that most of the time articles you read do NOT contain ALL the facts. Children that are severely injured happens just seconds after they are entangled on the cord. You don’t hear a thing. If you have window blinds in your home with operational cords, please take them down and replace them with something cordless. No one wants a child to never play again whether they are still here on earth or no longer with us.