Family speaks out on child's death

By HEIDI DESCH / Hungry Horse News

The family of a 3-year-old boy who drowned last November is speaking out on the incident.

Kalob Connors died after drowning in a bathtub in a West Glacier home. He is the son of Michael Connors and Brandy Klein.

Connors maternal grandmother Sherie Shewalter contacted the Hungry Horse News this week about the incident.

Shewalter said she wanted to make sure people know what happened and that Kalob had drowned.

After the incident, an autopsy was performed at the Montana State Crime Lab.

In earlier statements, Lorrie Allen, also Kalob's grandmother, had claimed the autopsy found that Kalob had a genetic heart condition.

Shewalter this week gave a copy of that autopsy report to the Hungry Horse News.

According to the report, the cause of death was drowning.

It mentions that a portion of the heart had patches of yellow discoloration.

Shewalter claimed she was told that this was found to be the result of CPR being performed on Kalob.

People are coming up and saying he died of a heart condition, but there was nothing wrong with his heart, she said.

When the incident happened Allen had been caring for the boy.

Allen contacted the Hungry Horse News shortly after the incident to explain what happened.

Shewalter said that Allen couldn't have known what had happened because the autopsy report hadn't yet been released.

She said she did not receive the report until last Friday (Jan. 25).

Previously mentioned had also been that Kalob had suffered from seizures.

The autopsy report stated that Kalob had a history of multiple febrile seizures and that the last had been in July of 2006, more than a year prior to the incident.

According to MayoClinic.com, a febrile seizure is a convulsion in young children caused by a sudden spike in body temperature, often from an infection.

The autopsy report states that the seizure disorder could have been a contributory condition based upon past medical history and is a possible scenario which led to his drowning.

It goes on to state that a fall and striking of the head can't be entirely excluded, but that there is no autopsy evidence of such an impact.