Granny found toddler with cord wrapped around neck

A 17-MONTH-OLD infant died after he became entangled in a blind cord next to his cot.

His grandmother discovered him with the cord wrapped around his neck when she went to wake him from his nap.

The tragic incident happened just before Christmas 2016, an inquest heard yesterday. The child had been sleeping in a cot next to the window in an upstairs bedroom in a Dublin home.

His parents were working and the child was being cared for by his grandmother, who put him down for his nap, as usual, at 11am. The inquest heard she had read to him, played with him and fed him a snack before placing him in his cot, which was near a window, next to the Roman blind.

The blind remained closed at all times, and the cord was never in sight, the court heard. The room was located at the top of the stairs and the child could clearly be heard from different locations within the home, the grandmother said.

She went about chores, cleaning the house and tidying. She conducted a number of checks on the child, listening from the door but not entering the room, she said.

At 2.40pm, she went to wake her grandchild and found him upright in his cot. A cord attached to the lining of the blind was wrapped around his neck.

The grandmother disentangled him and contacted emergency services. She did chest compressions on the child until emergency services arrived. The infant’s parents arrived shortly after. The little boy was pronounced dead at the scene. His parents wrapped him in blankets and sat holding him before he was transferred to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin for a post-mortem examination.

Professor Maureen O’Sullivan conducted the autopsy and gave the cause of death as asphyxia due to a cord attached to the Roman blind. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a narrative verdict at Dublin Coroner’s Court, setting out the circumstances of the child’s death.