Avoid these domestic accidents
Yesterday, the Daily Graphic carried two disturbing stories that involved children.
In the first story, we reported that 50 children were in critical condition at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) as a result of accidental swallowing of caustic soda, an ingredient that is mostly applied in industrial activities.
The children, some of whom have had their oesophagus completely damaged, with others having to be fed through bypasses, need between GHc¢400,000 and GH¢500,000 to undergo treatment.
In the second story, a nine-year-old boy shot himself to death with a pistol he found under his father’s mattress, apparently thinking that it was a toy gun, the type that many parents usually buy for their children. These are incidents that we think could have been avoided.
As pointed out by doctors at the KATH, the cases of the 50 children at the hospital are clearly issues of negligence on the part of parents and guardians.
We know that caustic soda is used principally in the pulp and paper, textile, bleach, soap and detergent industries, as well as in petroleum products, aluminium production and chemical processing.
In all these, we note that the ingredient is to be used under strict industrial supervision; that is to say it is not a domestic substance. We therefore wonder why households would stock caustic soda, and in these cases carelessly, in a manner as to pose danger to the children in the home.
We fail to understand for which purpose the caustic soda was being kept at home for the children to be attracted to it.
The Daily Graphic finds the case of the nine-year-old’s death even more pathetic as the father of the boy was said to have been keeping the weapon without authorisation but carelessly kept it under a mattress in a shop. He is reported to have told the police that he got the weapon after robbers attacked him and left it and some machetes behind.
Whatever the case may be, these incidents bring to the fore the lack of proper parental oversight over the children we have in our various homes. Most often, we find in homes storage of kerosene, bleach and other substances in used water bottles. Moreover, these items are not kept away from the sight of children although it is always advised for items such as these to be kept out of reach of children.
Fortunately, doctors have indicated that the situation of the children at KATH can be corrected with between GH¢8,000 and GH¢10,000 per child. We make a special appeal to the public to go to the aid of the children by donating generously to save them.
We commend the Dutch businessman, Mr Arthur Paes, who has donated GH¢8,000 to help save the life of one of the children said to have swallowed the substance which was left on a table, making it difficult for him to eat normally.
We are convinced that there are many more people who are in a position to assist in offering treatment to the suffering children and hope help will come sooner than later.
We console the mother of the nine-year-old boy who is nursing a fresh baby and leave the rest to the police to deal with.
