A community is reeling after the sudden death of an 18-month-old child on Sept. 13.
Sudbury.com spoke with several residents of the neighbourhood where the child lived with his mother.
"As a parent it's devastating to hear about something like this," said a neighbour who did not want to have her name printed. "I have an 18-month-old daughter and I couldn't imagine what I would do if something like this happened."
Several residents, none of whom wished to be named, said talk around the neighbourhood is a mishap occurred in the bathtub on Wednesday.
"From what I've heard, the two children were in the tub, the mother only had one towel so she took the three-year-old from the tub and went to get another towel. When she got back the child was floating unconscious in the water," one neighour said, summing up what people have been saying.
Firefighters, police, EMS and Child Protective Services all showed up to the scene after the mother called 911. Firefighters took the 18-month-old child from the home and performed chest compressions in full view of neighbours, one resident told Sudbury.com.
"My 10-year-old son saw this happening and he's really upset about it," said the neighbour. "I had to sit down with him and tell him what had happened, he's been crying for hours."
This is the second time in the past two years that the community has had to cope with the loss of a young child or infant, the director of the Louis Street Community Association said.
"Two years ago a (family lost a) child to SIDS," said June Davis. "It's just really sad. This opens up old wounds for people, it affects our whole community."
Another neighbour said the three-year-old who was in the tub with the 18-month-old on Sept. 13 is in the care of his father, who does not live with the mother. She said she gave him supplies to help him out.
"When the three-year-old came out of the house, he was just in a diaper," she said. "I went and grabbed some diapers and things from my home to give to (the father)."
Despite the talk around the neighbourhood, the circumstances of the child's death are under investigation by the coroner's office.
*An earlier version of this story used an image of townhouses on Louis Street. The image does not show the address where the child died and was not intended as such. However, since the image created some confusion, we've used a replacement image.
