Our son was about ten months old when my husband and I moved into our newly built home. The small porch on the back deck had open railings with a cement slab below. We immediately obtained recommendations for the best way to enclose these openings for our son’s safety. Consequently, we purchased hardware cloth, a heavy-duty galvanized wire mesh, to cover the openings. But we realized once we got home that there were pointed metal spikes at the edges of the mesh, so we planned to remove the spikes as soon as the covers were in place.
As we were installing the covering, our son awoke from his nap. We took him outside to crawl in the grass, where we could keep an eye on him while we continued with this important task. When it was time for lunch, I went inside to prepare our meal, and my husband went down into the yard to pick up our son to bring him inside.
Moments later, I heard a loud scream from our child. My husband was also in great distress. He had heard a ripping sound as he passed the railing and thought it was from our son’s overalls. But it was the sole of our son’s foot, which had been torn by one of the metal spikes.
