Local Boy Nearly Freezes to Death in 90 Degree Heat!

Picture taken of toddler just before freezing incident.

In a terribly frightening incident in suburban Utah today, a four year old child came close to experiencing full-body hypothermia and instant death after running through his brand new Mickey Mouse sprinkler in his very own backyard. The terrified child, who was eventually rescued by his inattentive mother, was frolicking merrily through the water with a friend, wearing nothing but skimpy bathing trunks, when he suddenly realized he might be about to freeze to death. The boy immediately alerted his mother through a complex series of whining sounds emitting from his mouth, that he was indeed, about to die from the cold. The mother, obviously not accurately interpreting the boy's signals, advised him to lay on his towel in the sun. Of course, realizing the seriousness of his predicament, the boy refused and ran onto the nearby deck where his careless mother was lounging, to once again, emit the whining sounds and warn his mother of the eminent freezing. As if the child had not suffered enough, the unwise mother guided her son to a sunny area on the deck where she hypothesized he might warm up and improve his condition. Unfortunately, this action resulted in what the boy described as third degree burns on the bottom of his feet from which he may never recover. Luckily, a family friend, Kathryn Coombs, age 18 months, came upon this frightening scene, correctly interpreting the boy's shrill signals and escorted the crying child into the shady area of the deck near his negligent mother. Emergency personnel on the scene today issued a stern warning to all parents of toddlers to be acutely aware of the dangers of hypothermia and possible freezing death caused by unsupervised sprinkler running.

Our Hero: Kathryn L. Coombs

Notice Visible Signs of Hypothermia in Both Boys