Toddler Chokes to Death After Mother Dies While Feeding Him

A worried neighbor, who hadn’t heard from Miss Tomassian for days and could hear Nathan crying, phoned the police. Police forced their way into the second-floor unit to find a woman in her 40s and a 1-year-old boy dead, as well as a 2-year-old boy who was alive, but suffering from dehydration, KTLA reports.

Police haven’t identified the woman, who had recently adopted the young brothers, but a friend tells KTLA her name was Erika Tomassian.

According to Preciado, a preliminary investigation indicates the 1-year-old “was being fed when the female appears to have collapsed and [then] the child suffocated with food”. The boy then choked on the food and died after Tomassian collapsed.

When they arrived at the apartment in the 1600 block of North Fuller Avenue, officers found Tomassian and her younger son dead. A close neighbor, Estela Avendano, used to babysit the children and told KTLA5 that they were “wonderful people” and became very emotional over the situation.

Police do not suspect any foul play in relation to the deaths.

Firefighters had to break in to the apartment.

Nathan was taken to a nearby hospital, where he is reportedly in a stable condition. According to authorities, Tomassian was raising the two boys alone. A mom and her baby died after a feeding, leaving a toddler boy all alone in the same home until he was rescued days later. While the cause of Tomassian’s death is still unclear, she is believed to have been around 45 years old.

“What adds tragedy to this is… that this woman had just opened up her heart and her home to these two boys and adopted them”.