8-Month-Old Baby Strangled To Death By Balloon Cord In 'Terrible Accident'

In a tragic incident, an 8-month-old baby died after being strangled by the cord of a balloon that was tied to her parent's bed.

Malaysia Lamour managed to reach out of her crib and grab the cord of a heart-shaped Valentine's Day balloon, which was tied to the bed. However, its cord got wrapped around her neck, killing her in the process, prosecutors told a U.K court, Manchester Evening News reported

The incident happened on the night of Feb. 22, 2020, just after the child's mother, Brandy Harvey, returned from work to their apartment in Salford. Her partner, Jackenson Lamour, left for work at the same time. Harvey spent some time playing with Malaysia. Around 10 p.m., the mother left the baby in a crib at the foot of the couple's bed and rushed to the kitchen.

While she was doing the chores, Harvey could hear the baby making some noises and occasionally crying from the bedroom. When Harvey noticed that the crying had suddenly stopped, she rushed to the bedroom to find Malaysia with the cord wrapped tightly around her neck. She immediately cut it loose and called the paramedics. But they couldn't save the baby.

Coroner Dr. Alan Walsh said officials didn't find anything suspicious or any evidence of first-party involvement. "All the inquiries show her mother and father to be wonderful parents, they all say they were very caring to Malaysia and it seems to me they were a loving family," he informed Bolton Coroner's Court.

Dr. Philip Lumb, a pathologist who performed the postmortem examination on the child, said the cause of death was compression of the neck. He added that the child might have tried to grab the cord, before falling from either a sitting or standing position, causing it to wrap around her neck.

"This was a tragedy of immense proportions," Dr. Walsh said.

"It's important that I say that I accept this was an enormous tragedy for Malaysia's parents and I can't stress enough that they seemed to be wonderful parents who loved Malaysia. While nobody expects these terrible accidents to happen, they do happen, and it's something to learn for other parents from the tragedy of Malaysia's parents," he added.