EDITORIAL - Learning from a loss

A girl drowned in Sitio Kanipaan, Barangay Basak, Mandaue City, Tuesday last week after she allegedly fell into the river there.

While police are looking into the incident, the mother of the eleven-year-old said it was likely her daughter suffered an epileptic seizure while she was crossing a walkway and fell into the river and drowned.

She added that her daughter often suffered seizures when she was fatigued and earlier that day she had been out helping her grandmother gather scrap to sell.

Our sympathies go out to the girl’s family. No one should have to die that young.

Now we can’t help but raise some issues that could have contributed to the incident. Note that we aren’t victim-shaming here, just putting in our two cent’s worth on what happened.

The first is that it would appear she and her family was living in an area that had a drowning hazard.

If she hadn’t lived where she did or had to cross the walkways she had to to get home, what are the chances she would still be alive today?

This should at least call attention to living away from what can be considered hazard zones, or making sure that those who have to live there have access to infrastructure that can be considered safe or reliable.

The second is the girl’s medical issue. If medical treatment for her condition had been affordable, would she have suffered from seizures as often as she did? Would she have survived that walk home from gathering scrap with her grandmother to sell?

This should at least call attention to authorities to make sure that kids who have certain medical conditions should have access to the medicines or treatment that they need.

Like we say in incidents like these, the best we can do about tragedies is turn them into teachable moments so that, hopefully, they can never happen again.