A newborn baby was killed by an avocado falling from a tree while nestled in his mother’s arms, she has claimed, accusing the council of repeatedly failing to heed warnings to cut it down.
Baby Lucas was just 12-days old when he was struck in the head by the fruit outside of a nursery in Quilmes, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina last Thursday, according to local media.
Mother Guiliana Gomez, 30, was dropping off her five-year-old son at the school on the Calle Conesa while cradling her infant child when the avocado hit him, causing multiple skull fractures.
An ambulance only arrived after 20 minutes and without the right equipment to treat the infant, an unnamed witness told local outlet El Dia.
“Lucas wasn’t bleeding, but he writhed and suddenly started crying. That’s when his mother realized what had happened and almost fainted. I had to hold the baby,” they said.
Lucas spent three hours in surgery before being placed in intensive care and passed away four days later, on Sunday.
Ms Gomez blames the council for the tragedy, saying locals had been pleading with officials to prune the three trees near the nursery for more than a year without action.
“They didn’t come to prune the tree beforehand to prevent this. They’ve been asking for it to be cut down since 2025,” she said, noting that avocados had already fallen at the entrance and exit of the nursery.
“We have the school records from last year asking the municipality to cut down the tree,” the child’s uncle told local media, per El Dia.
“After Lucas died, they cut it down secretly. There had already been a complaint from a father who was knocked unconscious by an avocado. Other children were nearly hit by one.”
Ms Gomez claimed that since the death the municipality had put her in touch with a psychologist who “asked how my son was doing after he was already dead”.
“No one else called me,” she said. “They’re going to have to take responsibility.”
The Quilmes Prosecutor’s Office No. 9 is investigating the case, which was initially classified as death by “negligent injury”, La Nacion reported, citing local security sources.
In a letter to her late son shared by local outlet Revista Gente, Ms Gomez wrote: “Thank you for those few days of happiness and love you gave us. I love, I loved, and I will always love being your mum.”
“I know you fought like a champion, and unfair fate has made it so that you are no longer physically with me today,” she wrote, adding: “I have to stay here for your little brothers and sisters” and “you will always be in my heart, thoughts and soul.”
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