BOY’S DEATH FROM DROWNING

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26987, 12 March 1953, Page 10

BOY’S DEATH FROM DROWNING

FAILURE TO ATTEMPT RESUSCITATION (New Zealand Press. Association) GISBORNE, March 11. Regret that no attempt at resuscitation had been made or that assistance had not been sought immediately after the body had been recovered, was expressed by the Coroner (Mr W. H. O. Johnston) at an inquest into the death of Hirini Huihui, aged seven, of Waima, whose body was found in the Waima stream on January 14. The Coroner, in finding that the child had been accidentally drowned, said that there was a distinct possibility that resuscitation efforts might have resulted in the child’s life being saved. The father of the child said the child suffered from epileptic fits, but he had not complied with the request of the district nurse to have the boy treated medically, as he did not approve of doctors.

Paora Huihui said that he had seen the boy floating face downwards in the stream and had recovered the body and taken it to his home. There, in the presence of his mother, he stripped the body and wrapped it in a blanket Neither of them had any knowledge of artificial respiration. As there was no sign of life, witness assumed that the boy was dead. It did not occur to him to seek medical assistance or to notify the police. Similar evidence was given by the mother of the child. Paea Huihui? who said that the child was an epileptic and was subject to.fits which generally lasted for a few minutes. She would have been willing to have the child treated for these fits, but her husband would not agree. Dr. L. C. Carter said that he found that the district nurse had applied artificial respiration and had excelled a quantity of water from the lungs.

Dr. Carter described the child'as a severe epileptic and said he considered that he had been drowned while unconscious after a fit. He also considered that, had artificial respiration been applied immediately after the boy had been taken from the water, the child might have been saved.