Curmudgeon's Corner

Just Another 'Accident'

Posted by Al Campbell on May 7, 2012

Quality of Life, Political, People Making A Difference

Another infant death and another ‘accident’, even though there was ‘co-sleeping’ involved.  In this instance, a 3 & ½ month-old girl was placed in a bed at about 8:30PM where her 2-year old sister was already sleeping.  They were later joined by their mother around 10:00PM.  At 12:30AM, the mother awakened to a “thud”.

The infant was lying on the floor against an electric heater with poor wiring and was electrocuted.  The Medical Examiner labeled this death an ‘accident’ just like the others that have claimed so many infants’ lives.

Had the infant been in a suitable bed for one her age, there would’ve been no ‘accident’ involving her having fallen from bed onto an electric heater.  Had this truly been her time, there would’ve been a death by choking or suffocation or some other such cause.  Her death would’ve been equally lamentable but it might have been explained by circumstances that did not involve co-sleeping.

The story just seems to have no final chapter; mothers sleep with infants even though they’ve been told, over and over again, that this is dangerous, and infants continue to die as the result; either the direct result or a directly-related result.

And there is never a finding of negligence sufficient to bring cases to trial.  Without such cases serving as an example to others, unfortunately, these ‘accidents’ seem to go on without abating.  Co-sleeping, by all indications, has not been reduced.

City officials decry the deaths but do nothing of substance to change the things that lead to these deaths.  Unfortunately, there is a growing indication, to me at least, that these officials might well be fearful of losing votes if this practice were to be prosecuted.  What else can explain their lack of action in such cases?  They can obviously see the relationship of co-sleeping to infant deaths.  If this were being caused by some environmental condition, do you think for one moment that a major effort would not’ve been undertaken at tax payer expense to eliminate the problem? 

Is this unfair to the governing officials?  I don’t think so.  They have done nothing but talk to this point, and talk, even though it got them elected, does not one thing to prevent this continuing death spiral.

Would you be able to continue to ‘overlook’ such a situation if you were the Mayor of Milwaukee, or the District Attorney?  Maybe they are so busy running for election or digging for dirt that they have no time available for such political stands or prosecutions.

Just another ‘accident’ and we didn’t even have an opportunity to see what young Diamond Nicole McDuffie might’ve accomplished to help mankind.