| ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS (Published July 1, 2002) When Valerie Rountree moved into her parents' Anchorage home this winter, she tied up the pull cord for the window blinds so her toddler daughter, April, couldn't get hold of it and hurt herself. Then she put April's crib next to the window, away from the pull cord. She thought that was best, considering the heater was nearby and would keep her daughter warm. But Rountree, like many other parents, didn't know that putting April there also meant putting her within reach of yet another hazard of older window blinds. On some, the inner cord that runs down the middle of the blinds throught he slats can be pulled out. Children can wrap the slack cord around their necks and suffocate. Web sites talk ablout the problem, even advertise free repair kits to fix the faulty blinds. But how many parents know about those sites or hear about the problem elsewhere, Rountree wondered. "You're not warned about it, and nobody knows about it," she said. Rountree didn't learn of the danger until it was too late. On the morning of Memorial Day, Rountree thought her daughter was sleeping. But April had woken up, pulled out the inner cord in the blinds and strangled herself. At 14 months old, the little girl who had just started saying "Hello" and singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider," had died. THAT MORNING Rountree woke up at about 8:30 that morning and checked on her daughter. April had dropped her bottle behind the crib, so Rountree pulled the crib away from the window, retreived the stray bottle and filled it with milk. She returned and gave it to April. She checked on her daughter again and thoughtshe was sleeping. Rountree said she went to her own bed and fell back asleep, too. That was the last time she saw her daughter alive. Around 10:30 a.m., Rountree said, she awoke again and found her 6-year-old daughter, Morgan, watching television. She asked Morgan if April was still sleeping, and Morgan replied that April had gotten stuck in the side of the crib and passed out. Not realizing the seriousness of the situation, she hadn't informed her mother until asked. Rountree ran to April's room and found her squatting in the crib with her head tilted to the side. About 12 inches of the inner cord from the blinds was wrapped around her neck. Rountree had no idea how long her daughter had been struggling. "I ran in there and I pulled the cord off," she said. Her baby fell over onto her side. "I put my hand on her and checked to see if she was breathing, and she wasn't," Rountree said. She pounded on bedroom doors to see who was home. Christopher Cox, the baby's father, was out of town, and Rountree's parents had gone shopping. But Rountree's brother was home and he started cardiopulmonary resusitation. Rountree called 911. The paramedics took April to Providence Alaska Medical center. Rountree and her brother followed. Doctors tried to get April's heart beating, but nothing worked. PREVENTION April Cox is one or more than 100 American childrenwho've died in the past decade because of an accident with blinds. Between 1991 and 2000, 114 were strangled by the outer pull cords and 16 died because of the inner cords, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The number of reported deaths caused blinds manufactuers and retailers to take action. In the mid-1990's, the industry formed a group called the Window Covering Safety Council. Manufacturers started changing the blinds to make them safer, said Peter Rush, the safety council's executive director. Until 1995, traditional blinds had a potentially dangerous loop at the bottom of the outer pull cord. Manufacturers started removing the loop. When they realized the inner cords were a problem, the companies started making blinds with special attachments that prevent those cords from forming a loop. "The industry is doing the right thing by making the new window blinds safer, but what do you do with all those old ones?" asked Ken Giles, spokesman for the Consumer Product safety Commision. "There are millions of old window blinds out there." The Window Covering Safety Council has some ideas. Rush said parents should never put cribs by windows, where children can reach shades or blinds. When Rountree moved into her parents' home, the blinds were already in her baby's bedroom. When moving into a new home, parrents should check the blinds to see if they are older models and have the dangerous features. "Check to make certain that you have no looped (pull) cords," Rush said. "If you do have looped cords, cut them." Another potential problem is the continuous loop cord seen on some blinds and drapes. If blinds have such a pull cord, the owners should mount the pull system on the wall or tie it down on the floor, Giles said. The third problem is the one that killed April. Inner cords that can be pulled out by children must be fixed so they cannot be removed. The Window Covering Safety Council has free kits to fix inner cords, the looped outer cords as well as the continuous looped cords. Parents should call the council's toll-free number, 1-800-506-4636, or visit it's website www.windowcoverings.org. Rountree called the Better Business Bureau to ask about the company that made the blinds in April's bedroom. Rountree wouldn't identify the manufacturer because she's considering a lawsuit. She hopes a lawsuit will force the company to fix the problem and put a better warning label on the blinds. Rountree's trying to help by checking people's blinds to make sure they're aware of the problem. And she's taken the blinds off the windows at home. "I'll never have them again," she said. Reporter Ann Potempa can be reached at......apotempa@adn.com or 907-257-4581. |
| After reading this article, please keep in mind that the safety kit that the Window Covering Safety Council provides, does NOT make the blind SAFE!! |
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