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7-year-old boy dies after being buried by snow

10 Comments

A 7-year-old boy died after being buried in snow in Shinanomachi, Nagano Prefecture, police said Friday.

According to police, the incident occurred on Thursday at around 4 p.m. TBS reported that Rikuto Terashima and his friends were playing in a snow disposal field where five meters of snow had piled up.

A snow pile toppled onto the boy, burying him. Neighbors pulled him out and he was taken to hospital where he died early Friday morning, police said. The cause of death was reported as pulmonary edema.

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10 Comments
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Too young.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Poor little tyke. His parents must be devastated. But why were those kids playing in a "snow disposal field?"

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Pulmonary edema? Not something otherwise healthy children die from, buried under a bit of snow or not. Surely suffocation was the cause of death.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

@Tessa: I have a young son who is nearly 2 and I worry about the day when he, despite all teachings and guidance, is with a bunch of other boys and they decide to do something that falls under the "boys will be boys" category. Playing and having fun in the snow without some sense of the risks is just something a 7 year old boy may do, no matter how much you teach them about "abunai", particularly when with other boys.

@Jeff: Not the expert, but since he didn't die right away (happened on a Thursday, he died on Friday according to the article), my guess is that he didn't actually suffocate, but, rather, the snow fell on him and the force/pressure on his little chest caused pulmonary contusion (bruised lung from a crushed chest) that then led to pulmonary edema. Or something along those lines.

These are the stories I just hate reading...as @ReformedBasher said, too young! My thoughts are with his parents. RIP, little Rikuto. I am going to give my little one a little extra hug when he wakes up from his nap.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Pulmonary edema? Not something otherwise healthy children die from, buried under a bit of snow or not. Surely suffocation was the cause of death.

Jeff, two questions. Do you think buried under 5m of snow to be "a bit"? Also, did you bother with a 10 second Google search to find out the meaning of pulmonary edema?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

A resent this. It is a likely practice Japanese parents and their children here don't monitor their whereabouts. Surely if the parents knew where there young son was about to engage in, he would had been warned of the danger and to keep off limits.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

clamenzaJAN. 25, 2015 - 10:02AM JST Jeff, two questions. Do you think buried under 5m of snow to be "a bit"? Also, did you bother with a 10 second Google search to find out the meaning of pulmonary edema?

Try re-reading the news article as written. Oh, never mind, I'll translate it for you. They were playing on five meters of piled snow. It doesn't say that the child was buried under the entirety of the five meters of snow.

Yes, I do know what pulmonary edema is - fluid in the lungs, generated by the body. A condition common to the elderly and often associated with heart problems. You seem to be confusing it with drowning or suffocation.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Jeff - in your very recent google search, you obviously omitted the obvious conclusion that the child's pulmonary edema was a direct result of being suffocated.

anf to quote the report; A snow pile toppled onto the boy, burying him.

so yes, he was buried under 5m of snow.

dear, dear, dear ...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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