DEATH OF CHILD.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19726, 17 September 1929, Page 5

DEATH OF CHILD.

RESULT OF A MISHAP. Leonard Joseph Fox, six years of age, residing with his parents at 33 Falsgrave street, Waltham, was admitted to the Christchurch Hospital on Sunday afternoon last, suffering from the effects of being crushed by a fall of timber. The child died early yesterday m6rning, and an inquest was held at the Hospital yesterday afternoon, before Mr E. C. Levrey, Coro- ' Douglas Thomas Swift, a house surgeon at the Christchurch Hospital, gave particulars of the child's admission to the Hospital at 5.45 p.m. of Sunday last He appeared to be suffering'from interna] hemorrhage, ana was operated upon at half-past nine, when he was found to have a ruptured liver. This was dealt with, and he rallied for a while after the operation, but began to sink at 2 o'clock in the moniing, finally dying at 6.25 yesterday | morning. There were no marks externally, and the injuries were consistent with being crushed by a fall of timber. Death was due in his opinion to internal haemorrhage. The child otherwise was well-nourished and healthy. Leonard Scott, a labourer, employed by the Railway Department, stated that at about 5 p.m. on Sunday he heard some children playing in a timber yard next to his residence. He heard a sound of timber crashing, and going to investigate, found one little boy on top of a stack of timber. The child was greatly distressed. He found the deceased wedged in between two stacks of timber in a sitting position, with half a dozen or so lengths of timber on top of him. He extricated : the boy, and his father and mother j came on to the scene. The yard was usually locked, but access could be gained by children through the fence. Joseph Fox, the father of the child, gave evidence of identification. A playmate of the injured child, seven years of age, gave details of how the accident had occurred, when the child was climbing down from the top of the pile, and had caught hold of the timber, bringing it down on top of himself. The Coroner returned a verdict that the bov had died as a result of internal haemorrhage, caused by a ruptured liver, the injury being accidentally sustained as the result of a fall of timber from the stack on which he was playing.