B.C. infant dies in playpen under product recall

Last Updated: Monday, August 20, 2007 | 6:38 PM PT

CBC News

A collapsed playpen has claimed the life of an infant in Richmond, B.C., apparently because his parents were unaware of the dangers he faced from a playpen that had been subject to a consumer recall.

Eleven-month-old Euan Artus-Elston died Aug. 7 in a playpen that was recalled more than 10 years ago because of a design flaw.

Laura Artus looks at photos of her son Euan, who died when his second-hand crib collapsed.
(CBC)

Euan's mother, Laura Artus, put him down for a nap in the playpen. When she checked on him 20 minutes later, he was dead. His neck had become wedged between the playpen's folding sides.

"I didn't really think, I just ran into the living room and said, 'Somebody call 911,'" Artus said. "So I started doing CPR."

Euan's grandmother had bought the Century Fold-N-Go playpen at a garage sale in Winnipeg a few months before Euan's death, not knowing that it had been recalled in 1996 because the locks that held down the sides could fail, causing the sides to collapse.

The problem came to light after an 18-month-old boy died in the U.S. under similar circumstances.

Artus said she had no idea the playpen could be dangerous.

"It seemed like a fine crib to use, a sturdy crib to use. I wouldn't have used it if I didn't think it was fine to use," she said.

"It took quite the stamina to get it up. You almost didn't want to take it down once you got it up, because it was so difficult to get up and so difficult to get down, you know. It was a sturdy crib. You wouldn't think anything of it."

Several online memorials were held Monday for Euan, who was born in Winnipeg and would have celebrated his first birthday in two weeks.

"I heard about it [Euan's death] and I felt like I didn't want to live anymore," said father Daniel Elston.