The autopsy on a two-year-old boy who was discovered unresponsive at a Discovery Ridge home on Wednesday is complete.
Emergency crews were called to a residence in the southwest community at about 12:00 for reports of a child in medical distress.
The toddler was unresponsive when crews arrived and was taken to Alberta Children's Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy was conducted on Thursday and the cause of death was determined to be strangulation.
Police say that the tragic death involved cords on a set of window blinds.
According to EMS officials, the danger of blinds is well known.
“Our thoughts are with the family,” says EMS spokesman Ryan Collyer. “It's just a tragic incident anytime this happens to a child.”
“The biggest thing to remember is when you have children in the home, you need to make sure it's a safe environment and drapery cords can be a choking hazard and we need to make sure they're up and out of the way.”
Including Wednesday’s strangling, there have been at least 29 blind cord strangulations in Canada since 1986.
In 2009, the Canadian government tightened regulations to restrict dangerous looped cords on blinds but the rules don't apply to blinds made or installed before that.
There have been numerous recalls of dangerous blinds and in 2010, officials in North America and Europe demanded blind manufacturers switch voluntarily to making only cordless blinds.
