Indiana 2-Year-Old Dies After Closing Automatic Car Window on His Neck: ‘He Stuck His Head Out to Look for Daddy’
Two-year-old Logan Vanderkleed of Indiana died one week after getting his neck stuck in an automatic car window.
The tragic accident occurred on August 17, when the toddler rolled up the window of the vehicle he was in while on his family’s Lafayette farm — and couldn’t press the button to bring it down.
His mother, Lisa Vanderkleed, explained the situation in a post on her Facebook page ‘Love for Logan,’ writing: “During nap time, my hubby and his dad were cleaning a vehicle out right next to our vehicle that the kids were in, so since they could see the kids in the car right there and it was super hot outside, they left the kids in the car with the air running and windows up. Our son must have decided to put the window down to look for daddy or tell them something and then somehow rolled it up on himself (the window button on the explorer is a toggle switch so left and right makes it go up and down) which is unlike our other car window in which you actually have to pull up on the lever to move the window.”
She goes on to add that her son, “stuck his head out to look for daddy or tell daddy something and maybe his knee or foot hit the button on the door and he freaked out and couldn’t reach it or figure out how to unroll it.”
Lisa says her husband, Drew Vanderkleed, went to check on Logan only to find his head stuck in “the almost completely rolled-up window.”
“Even with them right there,” she writes on Facebook. “Accidents happen quickly.”
Tippecanoe County spokesperson, Sgt. Robert Goldsmith, tells PEOPLE there was a criminal investigation into the incident, but “everything appears accidental.”
“Where it stands now, as far as protocol, we send the case to the prosecutors office to take a look,” says Goldsmith.
Logan was airlifted to Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, according to a GoFundMe page set up by friends of the Vanderkleed family.
“He was non-responsive to numerous testing, was showing low levels of brain function, and his body was undergoing convulsions/shaking,” reads the site. “Doctors were not optimistic based on their results and the time-frame they believed Logan had been w/o a pulse.”
The 2-year-old’s prognosis worsened as doctors realized the extent of his brain damage.
“The doctors keep saying he is not responsive to anything and while he is not brain dead, he has very little residual brain activity,” Lisa wrote on Facebook four days after the incident. “I am asking for another MRI just for peace of mind and to make sure God doesn’t show miraculous healing on his brain.”
After a week of being treated at the hospital, Logan died on August 24.
“At 1:07 a.m., Logan went to be with the Lord. We are comforted knowing he (is) in the best place possible,” Lisa wrote on Facebook.
The toddler was surrounded by 20 friends and family members, who “were singing praise and worship songs together in his hospital room,” she added.
As of Friday, the GoFundMe page has raised over $22,500 for the Vanderkleed family.