This mother did not think she needed to worry about the heating vents. Well, she had to certainly rethink that after her son's fall that could have turned fatal.
Parents sure do have it tough. Not only do they have to make sure the house is in order, they somehow have to keep an eye on their young children. Especially since kids can wander off and possibly get hurt. So they think of every possible scenario of danger and enable safety measures to prevent it. But one Oregon mom-of-two had to deal with a situation she never thought would happen and it nearly caused her 10-month-old son's life, according to Good Morning America.
Saydie Reedy was doing the dishes recently just a few steps away from where her sons, 10-month-old Kolson and 3-year-old Jackson, were playing. They had just moved into their family’s 1920-style home where the heating vents were built into the floor.
Considering they were almost right next to her, she didn't think anything was going to happen. However, just as she was about to check on her sons, her eldest, Jackson sprinted to her and said, “Baby in." It was then that she realized he was pointing at an open heating vent on the floor and said "Baby in" again, and she began to panic. Since they were renovating the house, the heating vent hadn't been screwed on properly.
"I've never felt fear quite like that," Saydie said, according to NYPost. "I searched the whole house for baby brother and noticed the vent gate was pulled up. I couldn’t hear him in there, but he was nowhere else to be found. So, I quickly called 911, panicking." Coburg Police Chief Larry Larson said they were quite alarmed by the call. When authorities arrived at the home within minutes, they could not hear Kolson crying through the vent opening. Worried, they began to search for the boy through the vent and found a crawl space under the home.
The toddler had fallen eight feet below the house. Officer Kevin Wilson, of the Coburg Police Department, stripped off his gear and climbed into the crawl space to find Kolson. "I crawled about 15 to 20 feet back to where the heat register was and I could hear him crying," said Officer Kevin, according to GMA. "I cut the strap that was holding the heat tube and kind of accordioned it all the way to him and grabbed his arm. As soon as I grabbed his arm he stopped crying and then he just looked at me like, 'What are you doing here?'"
As Officer Kevin brought Kolson out, he passed him on to the officer waiting outside the vent. In a miraculous turn of events, the young boy had actually remained unharmed despite his fall. Apart from a few scratches and being very dirty, he was completely fine. "I've never felt so relieved. I'm pretty sure I was bawling," said the terrified mother. However, she did note that her youngest was annoyed by the fall.
“He didn’t break character once,” she told The Oregonian. “When the officer lifted him up out of the crawlspace and handed him up, the first thing he did was glare at the officer.” But all's well that ends well. Despite the happy outcome though, Saydie was nervous about the whole event. She had posted this moment on Facebook and realized she wasn't alone. “I was pretty anxious — I thought to myself, who loses a kid in a vent?" she said. “But a lot of people have reached out and shared their own stories of things their kids have done.”
The toddler even found the incident funny later as his harried mother said, “Today, he was crawling past the vent. He was banging on it and laughing.” She made sure to personally thank the people who were prompt in their response for help. "It was really emotional," Officer Kevin said of the rescue. "I think afterwards you look back and think, 'Was it really that bad?' and then you think it through and it was bad and could have been way worse. The reality of what you did kind of hits you."
But even though the Reedy family has moved past the incident, the mother-of-two urges other parents to be careful and watchful of their kids and home. "I didn't think I had to worry about the vents," Saydie told GMA. "There's other dangers in the world to worry about, I thought, than heating vents." Adding to that, Officer Kevin said, "The very thing you're thinking a kid would never do, they'll do. You have to think the way they'd be thinking and think of the things their fingers can get on."
Well, we're glad little Kolson is okay and back to his cheerful self. Let's hope the Reedy's won't have to experience such fear again.
References:
https://nypost.com/2020/01/21/oregon-infant-unhurt-after-plunging-8-feet-into-heating-vent/
