Why These Parents Are Showing Horrific Video of Child`s Near-Death Experience

It’s hard to imagine how a simple window covering could pose a hazard to our children.

But one family found out the hard way just how dangerous window blinds can be. And they happened to catch the terrifying accident on camera.

WARNING: This video contains disturbing footage, but it does have a happy ending.

Via ABCNews

Mother Nicci Walla was recording a home video of her twins eating when she turned around to discover her 4-year-old son son, Gavin, hanging from the looped ends of blind cords in their living room. Panicked, she screamed out his name and rushed to untangle him. Dad performed rescue breathing and thankfully, their horror story had a happy ending.

As a result of Gavin’s near-death experience, the Chippewa Falls family has been working tirelessly to change industry standards. Mom Nicci started working in a group called Parents For Window Blind Safety in order to spread awareness for these types of injuries. Gavin is now 17 and working to prevent more than 100 similar deaths that have happened since his terrifying accident, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“I’m glad that it’s out there,” Gavin told ABC News. “It saved the lives of other children that have been fortunate enough to have parents who have seen the video.”

Elliot Kaye, chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said cordless window blinds or blinds with inaccessible cords would eradicate the problem. However, CPSC doesn’t have the legal say-so to outright prohibit window blinds with cords. “I see decades, and I’m talking decades, about children once a month getting hanged to death by these products and it’s got to stop,” said Kaye told ABC News.

So, what can parents do to prevent an accident involving window blinds? By simply checking your blinds and replacing them with cordless models, the risk can be eliminated. Even if your blinds do have long cords (and you don’t want to spend the money to replace them all) there are some easy fixes parents can make to avoid potential strangulation. By cutting the cords very short, to the point where there is barely any cord hanging down at all, kids won’t be able to reach or get tangled up in them.