'I thought he was going to die': Mum's warning after baby nearly suffocates in car capsule
The mum of a newborn baby is urging parents to never carry their child out of the car in a capsule after her son almost suffocated to death.
Kate Gardiner, from Geelong, had arrived home from a friend’s place and in her rush to go to the bathroom, she carried her four-week-old son Floyd into the house in his capsule.
“I almost left him in the lounge room, but thought I’d better take him with me,” Ms Gardiner told Yahoo7.
But within seconds, the 28-year-old knew something was wrong.
“I took him in the bathroom and I just noticed that his face was really red … It was like he was trying to scream but he couldn’t.”
Panicked, the new mum unbuckled her son and noticed that he had started foaming from the mouth and shaking as if he was having a fit.
Unable to reach her phone while she held little Floyd upright, Ms Gardiner ran on the street.
“I just ran outside and just screamed for help,” she said.
“My neighbour came out and called an ambulance, and the lady across the road came out and said she was a doctor, so she checked up on him while we waited for the ambulance.”
Ms Gardiner said the entire scene unfolded in just minutes.
“I seriously thought he was going to die, it was awful,” she said, adding that she had even taken a CPR course a few days before but was so panicked she couldn’t remember the steps.
When the ambulance arrived, Floyd had started breathing normally again – but Ms Gardiner was still unsure what had happened.
“The nurse explained that he probably slipped down in the capsule and his head flopped forward and cut off the airways,” she said.
“I just didn’t notice.”
Ms Gardiner said she had no knowledge about capsules and car seats being so dangerous outside of a vehicle, and is hoping her story will help to raise awareness in other parents.
“I thought they were designed to take out when they were asleep, but I didn’t know anything,” she said.
“There’s definitely not enough information out there about them. I’m so lucky that I was there to help him and I was there when it happened, because if I had left him in the lounge room he probably wouldn’t be here.”
Removing capsules with baby inside presents a ‘huge risk’
Director of Child Restraint Installations Australia (CRIA) Kelly Lowndes, a professional accredited installer, said removing capsules from a vehicle with a sleeping child inside is a “huge risk”.
“With capsules especially, when you remove them from the vehicle, it actually changes the position of how the child sits in the capsule,” Ms Lowndes told Yahoo7.
“Car seats are for travelling, they’re not a sleeping compartment and that’s where people get confused. It’s a risk of positional asphyxiation.”
Ms Lowndes said with events like Christmas Day approaching, parents may be tempted to carry the capsule as they travel to lunch or dinner with family – but they simply shouldn’t take the risk.
“It’s imperative that if you’re going to be anywhere for long periods of time that you take the child out and into a bassinet instead of taking the capsule out and leaving on the ground.”
Ms Gardiner and Floyd spent Tuesday night in hospital before being released on Wednesday afternoon.
She said she’ll never carry her baby in a capsule again.
“I’ll just get him out, too bad if he’s asleep. I’d rather deal with a baby that’s awake and grumpy then one that’s not here.”
In 2015, a 17-month-old baby girl died after she was put into a car seat for a nap at a day care centre in Texas, US.
Instead of moving her to a cot or waking her up, the care provider let her sleep – a decision that cost little Amelia her life.
Amelia’s mother, Lisa Smith, received a call while at work, telling her that her daughter “didn’t wake from her nap”.
According to Ms Lowndes, tragic deaths like Amelia’s are “highly preventable”.
“It’s all about education,” she said. “That’s all we want, is for our kids to be safe.”
To find out more about Australia’s car seat laws click here.
To find the safest car seat choice for your child, click here.
