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Theresa's Tidbits - Loss of baby a painful shock
Theresa Seraphim
for Spotlight
For many people, nothing can be worse than losing a family member. For parents, when the deceased is a child, the death must be doubly painful.
A family heading for Argentina this weekend found that out last weekend when their 15-month-old son fell from one floor to another at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
Reports say the mother had the boy (named Lucca) by one hand and a suitcase in the other. When she turned to check on his four-year-old brother Massimo, Lucca squirmed away and went over the railing.
One witness described the father running down the stairs towards the child and then holding him. EMTs tried to revive Lucca, but he died later in hospital.
According to the Globe and Mail, police are reviewing tapes of the incident but feel it was a tragic accident.
So, what was to be a trip to Argentina to baptize Lucca will now be a trip to bury him.
It’s hard not to think of the effect this will have – on the parents, for obvious reasons, but also on those who saw Lucca fall. Witnesses who were interviewed for TV news were almost in tears at what had happened, with several saying they will never forget the scene. One airport employee said, “It was horrible. It was horrible. I haven’t slept all night.”
When something like this happens, it’s easy to try to look for somebody to blame, as that seems to make dealing with the situation easier to do.
Is it anybody’s fault? It doesn’t appear to be, although in comments posted after the news stories, some people chided the parents for not keeping a closer eye on Lucca. Could this have been done? When Lucca fell, was the father with the mother, or in a separate place? If so, might the tragedy have been avoided if he had stayed with his family? However, this is just conjecture, and not meant as finger-pointing, which would be useless, anyway. Any parent will say it’s impossible to keep an eye on kids every second of the day, especially with more than one child involved.
And the fact that Lucca is gone won’t change. His parents will grieve, for the rest of their lives, a son who has been denied his full life potential. In this tragic accident, the world is now a poorer place – but there is now one more angel in heaven.
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