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Words of caution, born from grief
By MONIQUE FIELDS © St. Petersburg Times, published January 9, 2001 SEMINOLE -- A day after 3-year-old Nicholas Vasquez strangled on a vertical blind chain, his mother remembered his laughter. "He was happy all the time, always smiling," Nikki Vasquez said Monday, her voice choked with emotion. "We're going to miss him terribly. He will be in my heart forever." Nicholas was the rambunctious little boy who, for Halloween, showed up at neighbor Ellennore Toulson's home dressed as something green with a lot of arms. He was the one she let pet her chihuahua, Samson the Great, the child who immediately went back to his yard when his parents told him to. "They were never outside unattended," said Toulson. "One of the (parents) was always there. The kids never left the yard." Pinellas County sheriff's deputies think Nicholas strangled about 11 a.m. Sunday, probably after he climbed on a couch near a window and did a Tarzan-like swing on the blind chain. Somehow the chain looped around his head, and it is likely Nicholas was suspended by the chain, which had twisted and tightened below his chin, for five to seven minutes, said Sgt. Greg Tita, a spokesman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Nicholas, who weighed about 40 pounds, wasn't heavy enough to break the chain. When Detective Matthew Miller pulled on the chain with both hands after the incident, it neither broke nor separated from the blind, Tita said. On the morning of the accident, Nicholas and his mother had been watching a video. She left the room and about five minutes later asked her husband, Luis, to check on the boy. His father found Nicholas entangled in the chain at their Seminole home at 6864 114th St. N in Seminole. He untwisted the chain from around Nicholas' neck and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but several minutes later, the boy was pronounced dead at St. Petersburg General Hospital. The tragedy has been ruled an accidental strangulation. The death remains under investigation, but no charges are expected, Tita said. Family members of the boy spoke just for a moment on Monday to warn other parents that what happened to their little boy could happen to others. One of the boy's aunts asked parents of young children who have the same kind of vertical blinds in their homes to remove them. Warnings have been surfacing for years about mini-blinds, but the family hadn't heard any associated with vertical blinds. "It was something we thought could never happen to a member of our family because we're the type of people who watch our children very closely," said Regina Grunza, Nicholas' aunt. Nicholas was the third boy in Pinellas County to be a victim of a hanging accident in six months. In August, a 7-year-old St. Petersburg boy was found lifeless in the straps of his backpack, which was hanging from a nail in his bedroom. A month later, a 6-year-old, also of St. Petersburg, was entangled in a rope that was thrown over a ceiling fan, which his older brother switched on. That boy lived. Police say parents can take a few simple steps to keep their children out of harm's way. Suspend the chain and rope out of a child's reach, Tita said. Tie a knot in them. Remove some of the chain. Take a thumbtack and hook the chain over the tack. "This tragedy happened in a matter of a few minutes," Grunza said. "We feel we need to warn people who, like us, never thought it could happen to them."
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
