ROCHESTER, Minn., June 25 (UPI) -- The accidental sand burials of two 10-year-old boys -- in a sandbox and at a construction site -- point to the need for supervision, U.S. researchers said.
The two cases are the first documented deaths from respiratory asphyxia in sand burial recorded in medical literature. The victims died because the sand compressed their lungs and chests, not because they breathed in sand, researchers at Mayo Clinic said.
In one case, the boy was buried for 10 minutes when the tunnel he was digging in his sandbox collapsed on him, and in the other, the boy was buried in wet sand at a construction site after a 30-foot pile of sand collapsed on him and two other boys, who were uninjured. It took rescuers an hour to find the boy buried under 12 feet of sand.
Only 15 accidental burials resulting in eight deaths have been reported in medical literature and all but one included breathing in sand, researchers said.
"When witnesses are at the scene, and there is early extrication and appropriate airway management, odds of survival are greater," the researchers said in a statement.
