A 7-month-old baby boy who fell into a pail while his parents were asleep was declared dead at the South Bacolod General Hospital at about 8:20 a.m. Monday, Oct. 21, Capt. Lanie Deriada, Police Station 9 chief, said.
The 19-year-old mother of the child said that she, her 22-year-old partner and the baby slept on one bed in their house in Purok Medalla Milagrosa, Brgy. Sum-ag, Bacolod City.
She told the police when she woke up at about 7:30 a.m. Monday she discovered the child in the pail of water beside their bed that was kept there to clean him if he defecated.
The child was allegedly floating in the pale head down.
The unconscious child who appeared to be lifeless was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, Deriada said.
The ambulance driver said he had difficulty getting through heavy traffic because of flooding in the Sum-ag area.
The engine of the ambulance broke down in the flood waters and the child was transferred to a private vehicle to get to the hospital where he was declared dead.
Flooding caused by heavy rain caused the evacuation 252 individuals in Barangay Sum-ag and 29 in Barangay Pahanocoy, Bacolod City, Monday morning, Anna Maria Laarni Pornan, Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office head, said.
Bacolod Bureau of Fire Protection personnel rescued residents from the flooded areas.
The highway in Sum-ag near the crossing to the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Economic Highway was also flooded causing heavy traffic for more than an hour.
The traffic jam was from Barangay Taloc, Bago, all the way up to Sum-ag in Bacolod City.*