Boy's death in blinds' cord prompts alert

A 3-year-old Crystal Lake boy died Thursday when he became ensnared in the cord from a horizontal window blind and suffocated, an autopsy confirmed Friday afternoon.

The boy, Chance Rittenhouse, was pronounced dead at Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry on Thursday afternoon about an hour after he was found not breathing at his home on the 200 block of Prairie Street.

"The child was playing in his bedroom, got entangled in a cord from his blinds and he asphyxiated as a result of that," Deputy McHenry County Coroner Curt Bradshaw said after the autopsy.

Although they will wait for a coroner's hearing before formally wrapping up the case, Crystal Lake Deputy Police Chief Dennis Harris said his department's investigation for all intents is closed.

"We are satisfied that this was an unfortunate accident," he said.

It is the kind of accident that affects more than 25 families a year, according to a 2003 study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Although only 160 such deaths were reported from 1991 to 2000, the study found many cases of children suffocating on blind cords were going unreported. About 93 percent of the reported deaths were of children 3 years old or younger.

In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and blind makers agreed on a new set of cord standards that eliminated some, but not all, of the safety threats.

For that reason McHenry County Coroner Marlene Lantz urged families to take precautions in protecting young children from the potentially deadly consequences of playing around blinds.

"Make sure your blind cords are tied up so kids can't reach them, because little kids are attracted to things like that to swing around in or play with," Lantz said. "Don't take for granted that because you have newer blinds your kids are safe."

The coroner's office will be reporting the death to the commission, Bradshaw said.