#2--COMMUNITY SHOCKED BY CHILD'S TRAGIC DEATH

 

                                  DEBORAH LOUISE COLLAR

                                                              Deborah & her brother Bryon                                                                                                                                -photo courtesy of sister Marilyn Collar Robb

                                    

                                                   painting of Deborah by her Aunt Laura Collar Boyes                                                                                                  -courtesy of Marilyn Collar Robb

It was a March Monday afternoon and three year old Deborah was playing with her six year old cousin. The two children got into the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and sampled some of the tablets, which were kept there.  The boy tasted one of the tablets but spit it out when it “tasted bitter”, but Deborah swallowed some of the tablets and became ill shortly after.

She was taken to the Wingham hospital where a stomach pump was used to empty the contents of her stomach, and after being kept there for some time under observation, she was allowed to go home. Her parents, Louise and Frank, were cautioned to watch closely for any signs of condition.

After supper, the little girl’s condition became more serious, and a doctor was again called.  She was taken to the hospital a second time where doctors worked on her for two hours, using artificial respiration, but without success. The coroner said it was difficult to say what the child had taken from the medicine cabinet.  There were several kinds of tablets in the cabinet, including some cold tablets, and it was impossible to say which container the pills came from.  The little boy said she had swallowed three pills.

Interment in Wingham Cemetery.

-from Wingham Advance Times, March 10 1954

                                                    Bryon, Frank, Louise, Deborah Collar

                                                            -photo courtesy of Marilyn Collar Robb

 

Deborah Louise Collar

b. Mar 20, 1951 in Wingham, Huron Co., Ontario                                                                                     d. Mar 9, 1954 in Wingham, Huron Co., Ontatio

my 2^nd cousin (Homuth line)

 

                                                                Wingham Cemetery

 

PS.

Dr. Henri Breault of Tecumseh, Ontario, is credited with inventing the current-day child-proof cap in 1967.  At that time, children were inadvertently ingesting household medicines intended for adults at an alarming rate. It was a global epidemic and Canada suffered 100,000 cases, claiming at least 100 kids each year. Breault, a career pediatrician and father of two just couldn’t take it anymore. At three in the morning, he came home and said, “You know I’ve had it! I am tired of pumping children’s stomachs when they’re taking pills that they shouldn’t be having. I’ve got to do something about it.” After several unsuccessful attempts, he finally patented a device called “The Palm N’Turn” and the rate of local child poisonings dropped by a staggering 91%. Child-resistant containers were soon made mandatory across the province and eventually North America.

                                                                Dr. Henri Breault