Hot bath suspected in toddler's death

The Indianapolis Star ^ | January 31, 2004 | staff report

[Samwise]

State police say 2-year-old boy apparently put his little brother in tub of White County house.

Indiana State Police in Lafayette are investigating the death of a 1-year-old boy from Monon who was found with second degree burns inside a bathtub at his home.

[gov_bean_ counter]

What did the 2 year old do, put the kid in a tonka truck and push him to the tub. Think people.

[Samwise]

This just breaks your heart.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Senseless, but to blame it on a 2 year old? I'm having a little bit of trouble with this explanation.

[Samwise]

Me too, but I'm trying not to go there until we find out more.

[Born Conservative]

There has to be more to this story; I don't think he would have stopped breathing/died from 2nd degree burns...

[GummyIII]

Shock.

[RightOnline]

So-called "parents" such as these should be shot.

[TaxRelief]

The 2nd degree burns may not have killed him, but couldn't shock have been the final straw?

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I received a large second degree scalding burn on my thigh last week. The pain is magnificent and the muscles are convulsing under the burn. I can't imagine the trauma for a baby. I am sure he went into catastrophic shock.

[RedWing9]

but to blame it on a 2 year old? I'm having a little bit of trouble with this explanation.

Blame is a strong word. But I would not doubt the possibly that the 2 yr old turned the water to hot-hot-hot.

[Born Conservative]

Didn't think of that. From the description in the article, it sounds as though he had burns on 30% of his body surface area. Hypovolemic shock would probably set in with this amount of area being burned.

[TaxRelief]

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:yItO7e_PLgIJ:www.wvbtls.org/2002%2520Peds%2520Basic-Pretest.pdf+Hot+water+burn+infant+shock&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

An even more interesting link. Answer question 1 then scroll down to the bottom for the answer.

[sharkhawk]

I agree, the parents are trying to blame the 2 year old? Even if the 2 year old did somehow turn the hot water up, who leaves a 1 and 2 year old alone in a bathroom? If they are trying to say that the 2 year lifted the little one into the tub, well that just defies incredulity.

[texasflower]

But surely the child's screams would have alerted the parents.

Hypovolemia progressing to shock is certainly possible, but would not have occurred immediately.

Where in the world were the parents?

[Keelin]

For the record, both parents are deaf. And the children were not left alone in the bathroom, they wandered in there without their mother noticing.

[Samwise]

Really? That's a pretty significant bit of information. Honestly, I had forgotten about this story--and I have not seen a follow-up in the press. do you know the family or are you from the area?

How tragic--all the way around.

[Keelin]

The child's mother is my cousin. Also, apparently the water pipes had been frozen. The kids may have turned one of the spickets on, and since nothing came out, they might not have realized till the pipes had thawed and the tub filled with water.
Here are two other articles about/relating to this.
http://www.deafienews.com/stories/2004/feb/040204d.htm
http://www.deafienews.com/stories/2004/feb/040209f.htm

[amom]

Thanks for the info here.

[hellinahandcart]

ping