Posted on 05/20/2005 8:05:32 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Boy Gets Trapped Inside Vending Machine
ELKHART, Ind. - A 3-year-old boy upset that his mother wouldn't let him use a crane vending machine to try to win a small stuffed animal took matters in his own hands. He climbed up the chute to get the prize himself.
Danielle Manges said she took her eyes off her son, James, for a moment to pick up a juice bottle he threw. When she looked up, he was in with the plush toys.
"I bent over to clean it and within two seconds he had climbed through the hole, into the chute and pushed the door shut so we couldn't get him out," she said. "He climbed up in the toys and was in there for a good hour."
Manges said James has been sick and sleeping odd hours so they went shopping about 3 a.m. Thursday at a Wal-Mart in the city some 15 miles east of South Bend. She let the boy play on some of the rides, but wouldn't give him money for the vending machine.
At first, Manges thought it was funny.
"He was playing with all the toys and hanging from the bar like a monkey," she said.
Manges said people leaving the store went back inside to buy disposable cameras to take photos of her son. She bought one herself.
She became upset, however, when Wal-Mart employees said they did not have a key to let James out. So Manges called the fire department for help.
"I expected his hand to be caught in the machine but it was his entire body in the machine," firefighter Anthony Coleman said. "He was swinging from a bar, jumping around. He was having a ball."
About 40 people watched as the firefighters removed the back of the machine and freed him.
James still came up empty handed.
"He definitely didn't get a toy after that," Manges said.
I'm septical that staying would do me any good, and Mr. HR cess it's brdtime, so I'd better roll.
I need tub be getting along too. See you around the fun stuff!! (Jeez, even Blurblogger dropped out of this one!!)
. What's a 3 years old child doing up at 3 AM? If he's sick, ain't he suppose to be at home in bed and not at Walmart?
Sick, well, it doesn't seem to make a difference around here. I sometimes go to Walmart really late(or early) to avoid the crowds. Kids are up, even on school days. I was talking to a school teacher about this a couple of weeks ago. It's no wonder the students are sluggish in the mornings.
LOL Looks like something my son would do at that age.
Personal word of advice, I would not be out driving or shopping in such late or early hours. The majority of drunk driving accidents occur after mid-night (usually around 2 AM when the bars close) and then again between the hours of 5AM and 7AM when the drunks wakes up but not fully sober and they decide to drive anyway. The majority of assaults occurs after midnight as well. I worked as an Emergency Room physician for 9 years and it is all too well known that the majority of traumas comes in during the night shifts.
Are you kidding? I go at night to avoid as many of the little "rug rats" as I can:') I worked nights for so long that I guess it became a habit. I have to weigh the risks. A drunk driver or getting run over by kids pushing shopping carts:') Seriously, I hear your concerns and stay alert and am careful where I park. IMO, this mom knew she shouldn't have had that baby out that late or she wouldn't have felt the need to explain his sleeping habits but they can get away from you in just seconds . I doubt if I would have bought a camera and took pictures though. I probably would have tore the machine apart
I'm very sorry about your Dad, but your story doesn't change the validity of the Gould family's case. If there weren't obvious evidence of a lesion on a scan taken over a year before his diagnosis, and there were no tangible evidence of the lesion prior to Dr. Gould's stage 4 diagnosis in early 2002, then maybe you could say, "It was his time to go." However, the proof of his adenocarcinoma was there on a scan over a year before anyone noticed it, and by then it was too late. The lesion on his scan was not a pinpoint; it was 1/2 inch to an inch in size.
A man who had so many ideas to share and so many positive things to offer to his students, his readers and most of all his family, was dead 10 weeks after his diagnosis with adenocarcinoma because specialists at one of the world's leading cancer centers failed to notice it. That's their job; that's why they have the reputation of being the best. If they had used due diligence, Dr. Gould could have enjoyed many more meaningful and productive years of life. His loved ones are still deeply affected by his death, and the physicians who made this fatal mistake should account for it.
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