One Coroner Wants Parents to *Really Hear* This Important Warning About Bath Time

(iStock / FamVeld)

When you are a parent, tragedy can strike at any time. Take the story of 33-year-old Joanne Pedlow, a mother of two from Northern Ireland.

One day, Pedlow was giving her seven-month-old son, Alex McCartney a bath along with his two-year-old sister, Lily. Pedlow walked away for a short moment to boil some water on a kettle, making sure that Alex was secured in his bath seat, which was also secured to the tub with the suction cups. The water wasn’t even past his belly button and didn’t reach further than the water level marker on the seat.

Unfortunately Pedlow was sidetracked by guests at the door when she heard her daughter shrieking. The mother ran back upstairs to the bathroom to find little Alex face down in the water, his body unresponsive.

“He was quite a big child and was quite heavy, I think he had leaned forward and toppled over,” Pedlow said to the Belfast Telegraph. While attempts were made to resuscitate the child, baby Alex died four days later in the hospital while in his mother’s arms. According to the reports, the little boy died from brain injuries as a result of being unresponsive in the water.

The coroner assigned to Alex, Suzanne Anderson, is now speaking out on the matter in the hopes that the Pedlow family’s tragedy will not be experienced by another family. “This has highlighted the important issue for parents about the dangers posed when a child is left unsupervised for a short period of time and even in the shallowest of water.” She continued, “Hopefully this message will serve to spare the agony this family has had to endure.”

We often hear this warning as parents to not leave your child unattended even with just a little bit of water, but we can often slip into the “it won’t happen to me” mode. Hopefully their warning will be an important reminder to all of us over the importance of following this safety rule.