BROWNED IN BATH TUB.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17337, 8 December 1919, Page 6

BROWNED IN BATH TUB.

FATALITY AT ST. HELIERS. DEATH OF AN INFANT. " A PURE MISADVENTURE." A distressing fatality occurred at St. Heliers Bay on Saturday evening, William Guyon Brookfield, the infant son of Mr. Kenneth Brookfield, solicitor, being accidentally drowned in a bath. At the time of the accident the parents were not at home and, as was the custom, the nursemaid was preparing to bath the child, at about 5.30 in the evening, before putting him to bed. Having placed the child in the bath-tub, in about nine inches of warm water, the maid left him playing, as she did every night, while she went into another room. When she returned, about five minutes later, however, she found the infant lying on his back in the bath, his head beneath the surface of the waterShe summoned Drs. Macdonald and Hunt at once, and though they arrived almost immediately their efforts at artificial respiration were fruitless. An. inquest was held before Mr. J. E. Wilson, S.M-, yesterday afternoon. The evidence showed that the maid had often left the child playing alone in the water, and the magistrate, stating that he considered the child's death was the result of a pure misadventure, returned a verdict of accidental drowning.