A 10-year-old boy was playing Hide And Seek with his brother, nine, at their Houston apartment complex when tragedy struck. The boy's mother came running when her nine-year-old son alerted his mom to finding his brother inside a Clothes Dryer.

The mom and her boyfriend both came running to the clothes dryer where her 10-year-old son was dead on the floor. The mother's boyfriend picked the boy up off the ground, where he had fallen once the dryer door was open, according to reports.

Her son was purple

Christina Rodriguez said her son was purple and his eyes were open.

She said she could tell her son was gone. "I should have been outside with him," the distraught mother said. Rodriguez said she had just seen her children a half an hour before this fatal accident, according to WFLA Channel 8 News.

CPR attempts fail

Despite paramedics giving the boy CPR at the scene, Fernando Hernandez Jr. was pronounced dead when he was transported to the hospital. Police and other first responders answered the call to an east Houston apartment complex around 6 PM on Friday (April 27).

Hind-sight

The mother, who is devastated by the loss of her son, spoke with reporters while in tears.

She repeated that she should have been outside with the boys, but she was inside getting dinner ready for the family.

Hide and Seek

She also conveyed that she doesn't know what happened. She said her sons were outside playing and then her younger son comes back and her older son in dead on the floor. According to Fox, the boy was hiding in the dryer and it appeared the brothers may have been playing hide and seek.

According to Fox News, police are investigating this tragic death and trying to rule out foul play. Clothes dryers are a favorite hide-and-go-seek hiding place for kids, but this is also a deadly place for a child to hide.

Frequent occurrence

According to a Consumer Report article on washing machines and dryers, over 2,000 kids each year are hurt and a few die after climbing into one of these machines. In this archived report from back in 2010, they discuss how simple it is for something to go wrong once a child climbs into one of these household devices.

They cite the case of a four-year-old California girl climbing into the family's washing machine and her 15-month-old brother somehow managed to turn that machine on with her inside. While the toddler was probably just playing with the buttons, having no idea at that age what they even were, the machine started.

The girl died of injuries sustained within that washing machine once it was discovered she was inside.

The danger is there and almost every home in the nation has access to a washer and dryer. Whether it be in the home itself, or at a complex laundry room, kids have access to these devices on a daily basis.
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