Thursday February 8, 2007

Toddler chokes to death on pacifier

JOHOR BARU: A 14-month-old baby boy suffered for almost 90 minutes before dying, after he accidentally swallowed his pacifier at his babysitter’s house.

The victim, Lam Chee Hol, whose parents work as factory operators in Singapore, was sent to his babysitter’s house in Taman Johor Jaya here yesterday.

It is learnt that the parents have been sending the baby to the babysitter for more than a year.

Yesterday, the babysitter put the pacifier into the baby’s mouth when she went to prepare his milk at about 10am. When she came back to check on him, she was horrified to see that he had swallowed the pacifier.

She tried to pull it out but it was stuck in the baby’s throat. She rushed him to a nearby clinic but the people there could not extricate it. By the time he was taken to Sultan Ismail Hospital at 11.30am, he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Shafie Ismail said the case was classified as sudden death as no foul play was detected.

In an unrelated incident, policemen responding to a public complaint found the body of an Indonesian man in a house in Jalan Enau 16, Taman Daya, on Tuesday.

The victim, only known as Fathor, 36, believed to be a contract worker, was discovered in a pool of blood in his living room.

ACP Shafie said a resident in the neighbourhood called the police at 7pm when she saw blood in front of the man’s house. Police found the man with a stab wound in his chest.

“We believe the weapon used was a knife,” he said, adding that police were now looking for the victim’s eight other housemates who have since gone missing.

The case has been classified as murder.

ACP Shafie urged anyone with information to contact the police hotline at 07-221 2999 or the nearest police station.

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