our year old twins have perished in Florida by suffocation after becoming trapped inside a cedar toy box. Their mother, Sadie Myers, now wants others to learn from their tragic ending. Please see the following excerpt from her Facebook post. Some material may be painful to read.
“Last Friday night while I was at work, don put the boys and the twins to bed, then soon after went to bed himself… When I got home from work a couple hours later I looked in at all the kids like usual to make sure they were sleeping, then ate my dinner and went to sleep… At some point early that morning the twins woke each other up and decided they wanted to play in their room rather than sleep, they do this a lot, it’s just a twin thing I guess, and then they usually fall asleep in some weird place in their room with toys left everywhere so mom and dad can see proof of their late night playing when we get up in the morning… Friday night the weird place they decided to snuggle up and go back to sleep was in their cedar toy chest that we use to store all their stuffed animals.. They pulled out all but a couple stuffed animals, I guess they left some to keep it comfy in there, then they laid inside head to toe with one arm each over their twin and I’m assuming said “good night kell kell” and “night night sissy”… Sometime during their sleep one of them must have moved or kicked during a dream and it caused the lid of this old wooden cedar chest to close… Something I did not know and I’m sure many others don’t know is that most wooden toy chests once closed are AIR TIGHT and also sound proof. So as they slept, all snuggled up together, they slowly ran out of oxygen within a couple of hours and passed away. They never even knew it was happening. There was no sudden gasp for air, it was a very slow transition from sleep to passing on…. When I woke up for work the next morning the boys had already woken up and were playing outside and assumed the twins were still sleeping.. Don went to check for them and this is when we realized something was wrong, so we ALL immediately started panicking, yelling for them, turning the house upside down, yelling up and down the street, then axton yelled “ Mommy I found them! They are so silly just sleeping in the toy box”, so I ran in to check and within a few seconds I knew something wasn’t right, but I also quickly realized it was already too late… It makes no sense to me and never will… I hope knowing this helps in some way, and I hope if you have a toy box like this that you destroy it immediately!!! again, please keep me and my family in your hearts and prayers, because this will never get easier for us.. I love you all”
Kids in Danger, a nonprofit organization says according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, at least 34 deaths to children under 18 have been reported between 1996 and 2014 involving toy chests. Since 2005, more than 21,500 toy chests have been recalled due to hazards including strangulation, entrapment, injury, and lead poisoning.