Agony, disbelief after four-year-old dies in folding table tragedy

A four-year-old boy died when his neck was pinned in a folding table, with his distraught mother wailing in grief and disbelief.

The son, surnamed Li, was playing in the living room alone on Monday at 7pm while his 24-year-old mother, surnamed Zhuo, was cleaning in another room in a flat on Western Street in Sai Ying Pun.

Zhuo said she realized there were no noises coming from the living room so she rushed to check on her son. She found him unconscious, with his neck in between the V-shaped legs of a folding table.

She called police but became too anxious and carried the boy downstairs to wait for help. Zhuo saw a neighbor, surnamed Ho, who also called police.

When officers arrived they administered first aid and then an ambulance rushed the boy to Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, where he was certified dead.

At the hospital morgue, the mother wailed: "Give him some medicine! Maybe it could wake him up!"

Zhuo also told hospital staff her son's hands were very cold and asked for a blanket to keep them warm. "Please let me in. I need to stay with him. He is very scared. It is very cold inside. I need to hug him so he will not get cold so fast. Please, I beg you," she said.

Zhuo and six family members returned to Victoria Public Mortuary yesterday.

She was clutching Li's favorite stuffed toy when she went into the mortuary in the company of her husband.

They stayed for about three hours and left at noon with Zhuo still tearful.

Ho said the family of five moved into the unit about a month ago. The family mostly communicated in Putonghua.

"The son was quite active," she said. "I had heard the family warning him not to touch this and that quite often."

Ho also said she heard the boy call for help at about 6.15pm on Monday. She knocked at their door but there was no response.

A similar case happened in Tseung Kwan O in 2011, when a two-year-old boy died when he was clipped by a folding table while playing in the living room when his mother was in the bathroom.

The Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance requires that folding tables should come with a safety lock to ensure they will not fold accidentally if they fall.

That's also because table legs could be pressured to fold when children pass through a flipped folding table.

cissy.so@singtaonewscorp.com