A tragedy that could’ve been avoided

Abdullah had just learnt to crawl.

The milestone in the nine-month-old’s life had the entire family elated. The apple of everyone’s eye, Abdullah was doted on by everyone.

But it was reaching this milestone that proved to be fatal.

When his father Obaidullah was out of his Sabujbagh home in Dhaka and mother Aklima was busy with house work, he crawled to the bathroom and tried to reach the water in a bucket around 10:30am today.

Just minutes later, Aklima noticed her son was missing. She searched and found the baby drowned in the bucket, Mahbub Alam, officer-in-charge of Sabujbah Police Station said.

The family took the baby to Dhaka Medical College Hospital right away but doctors said he died much earlier.

“We are devastated. We cannot accept this tragedy,” said Majedul Islam, an uncle of the baby.

The couple has another son, a six-year old.

Experts said increased supervision and more awareness of parents can prevent such unexpected deaths of infants.

“Children aged between eight and 18 months slip out of sight and often die in unexpected ways,” said Aminur Rahman, director (drowning prevention) of The Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh.

It is not possible for parents to keep watch on children round the clock. It is advised that they keep bathroom doors shut and put obstacles before doors so children cannot crawl to hazardous places inside the house, he said.

Parents have to keep buckets or tubs empty or cover those so that children cannot reach water, he added.