HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — For Agustin Amador and Ana Alberta Mendoza, his fiancee, the tears are almost non-stop, and so are the what-ifs.
“I would love to go back one day before,” a tearful Mendoza muttered.
Early Saturday morning, the Lutz couple lost their four-month-old son, Aurrel, who they said was sleeping in his crib at the time of his death, just feet from their bed.
“I still haven’t even gotten a chance to truly grieve,” Amador said.
Monday, Amador, and Mendoza delayed grief again to share their story with ABC Action News.
“I’m going through this, and I’m a strong man, I’m real prideful, and I would not go on the news for stuff like this, but if it can help out some other man — some other woman,” the father said through tears. “That’s why I’m doing this — to honor my son, for his passing not to be in vain.”
As parents to eight other children, they said they never anticipated suffering such a tragedy, but they hope it will help encourage other parents to practice “safe sleep.”
The couple thinks Aurrel rolled over in his sleep and may have suffocated on a thick foam-changing pad they had recently started using in the baby’s crib to comfort him overnight. They said they would unquestionably remove it from his crib if they could go back in time.
Petra Stanton, the Safe Kids Supervisor for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, said deaths involving unsafe sleeping conditions are typically 100% unintentional but 100% preventable.
According to Stanton, babies should be placed to sleep on their backs in a flat crib, bassinet, or pack-n-play. That space should be clear of obstructions.
“It should just be very bare. It needs to be a fitted sheet over a firm mattress. No pillows. No blankets,” Stanton said. “Our safe sleep message is alone, on their back, in a crib.”
Stanton said most Tampa Bay-area counties offer safe sleep classes, resources, and maybe even financial assistance.
For more resources and information, contact these local organizations in the county where you live:
- Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County
- Children's Board of Hillsborough County
- Juvenile Wealth Board of Pinellas County
- Healthy Start of Highlands, Hardee, and Polk Counties
- Healthy Start Coalition of Pasco
- Healthy Start Coalition of Manatee County
- Healthy Start Coalition of Sarasota County
- Healthy Start of North Central Florida Coalition (Hernando County, Citrus County, etc.)
Ultimately, Amador and Mendoza hope other parents will embrace Stanton’s advice.
“My son was loved, he was cared for, and this could happen to anyone,” Amador said.
As for Aurrel, his parents describe the four-month-old as a loving baby who loved to smile, kick, and babble to his siblings.
