'Truly tragic': Toddler died after becoming caught on cord while playing

A two-year-old boy accidentally died from strangulation after getting caught in a window blind cord, an inquest has heard.

Cobie Grimshaw was playing when he became tangled in a beaded cord which hung next to a window behind a sofa he liked to play on as a trampoline.

His mother Lauren, 26, found him minutes later but despite attempts at CPR and being flown to hospital, the toddler died three days later on 7 April.

He suffered an irreversible brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen.

Senior coroner Andrew Cox said: “I’m afraid to say that for such a devastating incident the facts are remarkably straight forward and clear.

“Cobie was a normal fit and healthy two-year-old boy. Into everything, clearly accustomed to climbing onto the sofa and using it as a trampoline.

“On this morning, he‘d been doing what two-year-old boys do, but tragically while climbing onto the back of the sofa he’d become entangled in the cords which were not fixed to the wall and he’s become accidentally entrapped and strangled himself.”

The inquest in Truro heard that Lauren and partner Tom had been playing with Cobie at the home in Looe, Cornwall.

In a statement read out by Cox, Lauren said her boy was “bright, clever... full of energy”.

She said she had gone to make hot drinks while her mother was visiting when she noticed Cobie had gone quiet.

When she found him caught, she took him out of the cord and shouted for Tom and her mother, Terri, who started performing CPR while Lauren called an ambulance.

She ran into the street to shout for help and a neighbour, a former St John’s Ambulance volunteer, took over first aid.

The toddler was taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth by air ambulance before being moved to a specialist hospital in Bristol, but doctors were unable to save him.

“I was aware that he had been having lots of mini heart attacks,” Lauren’s statement said.

“About an hour after a doctor came to speak to me and I was told his brain was swollen and he was not likely to make it.

“I am devastated by Cobie’s death and miss him every day. I just want things to be as they were.”

Dr Elvin Schadenberg, from the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, provided a statement that said Cobie suffered a cardiac arrest and “irreversible brain damage due to oxygen starvation”.

Cox concluded Cobie’s death was accidental, and described it as a “truly tragic set of circumstances”.

“Al I can do is offer my condolences to the family of Cobie, I am desperately sorry that we have met in these circumstances,” he said.

Lauren said after the hearing: “I would like to add that he was a happy loving little boy and was loved by all.

“He was the big boss at Southwest Inflatable Theme Parks and everyone answered to him.

“He was just starting nursery where he was making lots of friends. He was my only child and brightened my day very day.”