2-year-old boy dies after getting strangled by window blind cord as mom leaves for few minutes to boil kettle
A two-year-old boy, Cobie Grimshaw, was playing on the sofa when his mother left him to make a cup of tea. It is during this short duration that Cobie accidentally got entangled in the window blind cords on April 4. Moments later his mother Lauren Grimshaw, 26, found him. He was found suspended from the cord after he had climbed on top of a sofa. However, on April 7, Cobie died after suffering from an irreversible brain injury following a lack of oxygen.
At the inquest, Lauren said in a heartbreaking statement, "I went into the lounge and could see Cobie stood upright on the sofa near the centre window. I can't remember whether he was stood on the cushion or the back or the sofa, or if his feet were lifted. I remember thinking he looked asleep. As I got closer I could see the blind cord was around his neck. I immediately took him out of the cord by lifting him then taking it from his neck, while shouting for mum and Tom."
Lauren who lives with her partner Tom in Looe, Cornwall in England, further added, "Mum took Cobie from me. I was shouting for help. Mum laid him on the sofa and started doing CPR while I called 999 for an ambulance." After the ambulance arrived, Cobie was transferred by air. According to a report in The Sun, a coroner said Cobie "accidentally entrapped and strangled himself".
Lauren's statement was read by senior coroner Andrew Cox in which it said, "He was a bright, clever little boy who was full of energy." Speaking of the horrific time, Lauren said, "I hadn't heard or seen him get down from mum's cuddle, but I turned and saw he wasn't with mum and noticed he was quiet. I thought he was in the lounge. I finished making drinks and he had only been gone for the time it took the kettle to boil." Lauren's mother had just arrived at the house when she went to boil a kettle.
Steve Humphries, Lauren's neighbor, is a former St John Ambulance volunteer who took over the first aid after hearing Lauren scream for help. He said at the inquest, "I thought that had been a very long time," and added, "We continued giving first aid but there was no response from the boy." The little boy was unconscious for "five to ten minutes".
At the inquest, Lauren said, "I am devastated by Cobie's death and miss him every day" and added, "I just want things to be as they were."
The police found no evidence to indicate any suspicious circumstance and ruled the death as tragedy. The coroner at the inquest said, "Tragically, while climbing onto the back of the sofa he'd become entangled in the cords which were not fixed to the wall, and he's become accidentally entrapped and strangled himself."