The tragic experience of a dad who lost his son because he fell asleep holding him in his arms
Although we usually prefer to share positive stories that recount moments of joy, we offer, every once in a while, information about unpleasant experiences to warn as many people as possible, so as to help them avoid repeating them in the future.
In particular, we want to tell you the story of Haley and her husband Carmine, a young couple from North Carolina (USA) and their unfortunate, little newborn son, Lucas.
The latter was just two months old when destiny decided to intervene in a quiet scene of family life, turning it into a nightmare afternoon, one of those that you remember for a lifetime.
On 26 November 2017, at the approach of the first Christmas that would be spent with little Lucas, the couple decided to take a day of freedom from all other commitments to decorate their house. So starting from early morning, the two tirelessly worked to make their home as festive and comfortable as possible. Exhausted due to the morning activities, they then lay down on the sofa to rest. While Haley fell asleep immediately, Carmine continued to play with little Lucas for a while, but then he too fell gently asleep, with the newborn baby lying on his chest.
While the couple was asleep, the irreversible happened --- the newborn baby due to the light movements of his father's body, slipped into the space that separated the man's arm from the arm of the sofa. Luca's little body, too weak to wriggle, had gone down deeper and deeper, and then Lucas could no longer breathe.
Upon waking up, his mother, not seeing the baby, thought that Carmine had put him back in the cradle. When she got up to go check and found no trace of Lucas, she sensed that something was wrong! Immediately, after waking up Carmine, it took them only seconds to find the small lifeless body of Lucas, stuck between the back of the sofa and the cushion. Desperate, his parents tried to revive him, but neither they nor the medical staff could do anything. Little Lucas had left them, and would never come back.
Despite the atrocious pain, months later the young couple wanted to talk publicly about what had happened, to prevent other parents from going through that devastating experience.
Surely many of us can claim to have slept hundreds of times with their newborn, without anything happening, but this does not mean that it is safe. All pediatric associations state that the safest way to sleep, for a child under six months, is in his or her crib, next to the parents' bed.
Having a sleeping baby in your arms, watching their expression and listening to their breathing are magical experiences, but we must always be sure not to fall asleep ourselves.
For this reason, we would like to give some advice to all parents: If you are tired and feel that your body needs to rest, do not hold your baby in your arms, and especially do not lie with him or her in a position that allows you to fall asleep. It may seem like excessive advice, but there are still too many small babies who die because of accidents like this.
We are trying to make this story known to as many people as possible, so that little Lucas, like many others, did not die in vain.
