‘We were down to seconds…’ says mother of boy, 4, after he put cable tie around his neck

Riley's mother wants to make other parents aware of the dangers of leaving cable ties in reach of children.

A mother is warning other parents of the dangers posed by cable ties after her four-year-old son accidentally tied one around his neck and ended up hospitalised after the family struggled to cut him free.

Denise Kelly, from Offaly, said her “heart literally stopped beating” when she found her son Riley lying in his bed with a cable tie around his neck. 

“It was just a normal Sunday. I called the kids in for dinner and Riley just said I’m getting something in the room, he obviously had a cable tie at this stage - which I didn’t realise,” Denise said.

She then heard Riley calling her. “He was calling me from his room but he was calling me in such a way I knew something wasn’t right.

“His voice was low, calling ‘mammy, mammy,’ so I knew something had happened to him,” she told Midlands 103.

Ms Kelly was horrified to see her four-year-old in his bed with a cable tie around his neck that “was already closed really tight around his neck, literally in less than a minute.” 

Riley still has marks on his neck from the cable tie but has "bounced back" since the incident.

She brought him to the kitchen where she attempted to cut the tie off with scissors, but “panic set in big time” when the cable tie clicked tighter.

“I was just trying to calmly call for his dad, Paddy, to come in, not to worry Riley, but he started saying it was sore and I realised I couldn't even get a nail scissors in, it was already so tight.

“I just started shouting for Paddy, he came running because he knew  there was something wrong, so Paddy tried with the scissors to no avail.

Fortunately for the Kelly family, Paddy’s father lives nearby so they brought Riley and his sister to their grandad’s house.

“Amber, my five-year-old, was screaming at this stage ‘please don't let my brother die.’” 

While Paddy, his father, and his brother Barry tried to remove the tie from the boy's neck, Denise described Riley as “hysterical.” 

Denise could see the men were struggling to restrain Riley from wriggling. “Paddy’s dad was holding Riley’s hands, his brother Barry was holding his head, but he was that hysterical he managed to get free and grab the cable tie and pull it even tighter on himself,” she said. 

We were gone down to seconds at that stage. 

Riley never lost consciousness at any point, but Ms Kelly says “his face had all swollen out and gone purple, and the blood vessels were bursting everywhere.” 

“Paddy ran and got pliers, and he cut the tail of the cable tie as far up he could, he was able to yank it off then, thank God it came off.” 

Riley was then rushed to Mullingar hospital, where he was kept in overnight and needed x-rays in his neck to check for internal swelling.

Tests were also carried out on his brain to check that he hadn't been deprived of oxygen and doctors also examined his windpipe, which all turned out fine, Denise said.

“By the next day the colour had come back a bit, there’s still a lot of blotches on his face which you can see, there is swelling still around the eyes and obviously the mark on his neck, but other than that he’s bounced back great,” Ms Kelly said.

Riley (4) was rushed to Mullingar hospital after getting a cable tie stuck on his neck.

Denise shared her story on Facebook where the post has garnered almost 5,000 shares.

I debated whether or not to put it up on Facebook because I think at the time I was being so hard on myself and I was saying it’s so stupid having them lying around - it’s just mother guilt.

“But then I thought, if it just gets one person to put them up high and saves one child, I have to do it.

“I’ve had a lot of private messages from people thanking me because they had cable ties left out in reach and they had a curious child as well, and I also received messages from people that had been in the same situation,” she said.