Nicky and Nate Walla from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, together with their 7 children, are a happy family. They love watching their children grow up and have many great memories and video footage to show. 12 years ago however, mother Nicky filmed something terrible.
Their two young twins are currently learning to walk and are being fed by their big brother. Nicky films the babies and they both laugh joyfully for the camera. The mothers film was interrupted by the sound of a not hung-up telephone and so Nicky turned around to hang up the receiver. As the camera pans around, it catches something behind the babies, that leaves the mother screaming loudly in panic.
Gavin, their then 5 year old son, was hanging lifeless next to the window. His had the cord from the blinds tangled around his neck and his foot could only just touch the ground with his toes. The boys arms and head hung limp. Mother Nicky instantly dropped the camera, which recorded her desperation-filled cries: "Gavin!! Gavin!!"
You can hear father Nate enter the room and Nicky screaming the emergency. "He's chocked himself! He's blue!", she screams hysterically, as Nate tries to bring his son back to life in the background. "Can you breathe?", he asks the boy repeatedly.
Then the parents hear the most beautiful sound of their lives. The small son coughs, the begins heartbreakingly to cry. The crying means that he's alive though! And that is pure luck.
Every year in the USA around 100 children die as a result of strangulation from curtain cords. Within a very short time, the child loses consciousness and after just one minute it is already dead. The few who can be freed quickly enough, are often left severely disabled, like 10-year old Bobby, who also nearly hung himself as a child.
Gavin somehow wonderfully got away with nothing more than a red mark from the cord and some internal bleeding on his face. These sorts of terrible accidents are short-lived and the today 17-year old has completely recovered. He knows that it is a complete wonder that he survived and has therefore released the video footage of these few seconds where he nearly died, to the public. He would like to raise awareness of this household danger.
You can watch this terrible family video and the dangerous seconds of Gavin's life here:
As a result of such deaths, there are now some manufacturers that create cords that should prevent strangulation. But time and again it happens that children almost die while playing with the cords, such as in the case of small Luca from Berlin, who was saved by his mother at the last moment. SHARE this article with all who you know in order to draw attention to this deadly danger.
