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• Everett boy who died after sandbox accident 'loved life' 3/12/08

CONTACT THE HERALD

Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com

On unavoidable tragedies, such as this week's death

By Julie Muhlstein, Herald Columnist

Speaking about the unthinkable, a tragedy in a sandbox, an Everett principal said she could not convey the depth of sorrow felt by her school's community.

Patricia Gauksheim, principal at Silver Firs Elementary, had words of compassion Monday after a backyard accident claimed the life of fifth-grader Codey Porter.

Speaking for the whole community, I can only add that the principal expressed what so many feel. I hope that the families of Codey and all the children involved in this sad event know they are in our hearts and prayers.

Ten-year-old Codey died Monday at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. He had stopped breathing Saturday after he was buried in the sand during make-believe play with friends.

If there's a safer sounding activity for a school-age boy than playing in a sandbox, I can't think of it. I do know this: Anyone who has ever raised a child, and all the rest who have been children themselves, we all know that play comes with risks.

All the precautions -- the helmets, elbow and knee pads, curfews and rules regarding strangers -- can't protect every child from every occurrence, however rare, that could cause harm.

Things happen, sometimes terrible things, through no fault of anyone.

Readers of newspapers need no reminding that youthful rites of passage can be dangerous. Facts and figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, bear that out.

Playground injuries alone, according to 2001 U.S. statistics, are responsible for more than 200,000 emergency room visits by kids ages 14 and younger; 45 percent of those injuries are severe, including fractures, internal injuries, concussions and amputations.

Sports-related injuries to people ages 5 to 24 -- the emergency room visit rate is twice as high among males than females -- bring about 2.6 million kids and young adults to hospitals every year, said CDC statistics published in the March 2001 issue of the "Annals of Emergency Medicine."

The federal report sorted injuries by types of activities.

Cycling caused about 421,000 emergency room visits by young people in a year; football, 271,000; baseball and softball, 245,000; skating and skateboarding, 150,000; gymnastics and cheerleading, 146,000; snow sports, 111,000; and soccer, 95,000.

I just signed a waiver for my boy to play Little League baseball, a supervised activity. A 2001 study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which reviewed insurance claims statistics from Little League Baseball Inc., found that 13 boys died playing Little League ball between 1987 and 1996. During each year of that decade, more than 1.7 million kids played the game.

We parents know kids get hurt, and we send them out anyway.

And we should, kids need to play.

It doesn't take being a parent to know what can happen. If we think back to our own childhoods, we can recall times when deadly accidents could have happened. We survived our play days only by luck.

My brother used to tie a rope on the back of his bike. I'd grab the end of the rope and be pulled around the neighborhood while riding a primitive skateboard. We did this on busy streets. It left me with a little scar on my knee.

Two girlfriends and I would hike over a bluff along Spokane's High Drive to Hangman Creek. Now, it's the site of a golf course. Then it was wild country. We'd jump on steep dunes along the creek, eat sack lunches, and spend summer days in the woods. My parents -- good parents -- had no idea of the risks we took. Caring only about fun, we kids were oblivious to danger.

A child should never die.

Because our community has lost one of its precious children, we are all so very sorry.



Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.