11-year-old boy dies of hypothermia after playing in snow during Texas storm
An eleven-year-old boy in Texas has died of suspected hypothermia only hours after playing in the snow for the first time.
Christian Pavon Pineda of Conroe, north of Houston, is the latest fatality from the huge winter storm that swept across the state, knocking out power and water to millions of people for days.
At least 47 people across the southern states are believed to have died as a direct result of the storm.
It was his “first time [seeing snow]. That’s why he was excited outside,” Christian’s mother Maria Elisa Pineda told The Houston Chronicle. “Everything was well. He was happy that day. He was not at all sick.”
On Sunday, Ms Pineda took photos and videos of her son frolicking in the snow wearing a red hoodie. After half an hour he came inside to get warm, his gloves soaked from playing.
That night Christian shared a bed with his three-year-old step-brother in the family’s mobile home. The power went out in the early hours of Monday morning.
Although his step-brother was OK the next morning, by the afternoon Christian had not risen. He was found dead and Ms Pineda and her husband contacted the police.
While hypothermia is suspected, the official results of an autopsy will not be known for several weeks.
The Pineda family had emigrated to Texas from Honduras two years previous and were unused to the freezing temperatures that gripped the state this week. Their trailer home offered little insulation.
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