Doug
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02:07:57 am on April 27, 2002 | # |
Robert Cringely’s infant son Chase died of SIDS this week - literally in Bob’s lap, as he was writing e-mail. In response to this crushing event, Cringely is dedicating a substantial part of his life and resources to organizing an “Open Source” project to study SIDS and hopefully, learn to prevent it.
There have been few advances since 1995, and this very lack of progress has led to reduced interest in SIDS research. Yet my unblanketed, backsleeping little Chase died anyway, so I think there is much that could still be done. The old, broken-down engineer in me says it is time to build something.
I don’t know about the rest of you with infants out there in blogspace, but I know when our kids were infants I was terrified of SIDS. Despite it being relatively rare, SIDS is one of those things I as a parent felt powerless to guard against - I could take the recommended precautions, but even then, there are no guarantees. It could still happen.
The mystery, the impossibility of prevention, the terrible possibility of losing one’s child for no discernible reason, the guilt, and now, since so many past SIDS deaths have proved to be child abuse, the potential suspicion of the community makes SIDS seem so medieval a thing. How is it that our children can be stricken down by what might as well be an elf-stroke?
Reading Mr. Cringely’s story made me sad, but I applaud his determination to try and do something. Some will scoff and wonder what a writer/geek can do to combat a scourge like SIDS, and will say the he’s just trying to assuage his grief by channeling his energy into this project. That may be so, but it doesn’t mean he won’t succeed. I wish him luck, and I can’t think of too many more worthy causes for a man to devote his life to.
