Email This Post Email This Post

car seat safety

July 10, 2008

I usually do not write about life or death issues, but this story that I am about to tell will hopefully make every parent and caregiver extraordinarily diligent about car seat installation .

Last Saturday, I received an e-mail from my friend; the subject was her daughters name (for sake of privacy we will call her “baby C”). It started off saying she was sorry to write this in an e-mail, but she needed to reach everyone as quickly as possible. She and her daughter had been in a “serious” car accident on the LIE. She is fine, but Baby C is not. She has been intubated, because of major head injuries. She was asking all of us for our prayers. I could not even finish reading the rest of her e-mail; I just handed my husband my blackberry and went into the bathroom shaking. I was in complete shock- they were both just at our house three days ago for a play-date.
I e-mailed my friend immediately, not asking any questions about “what happened”, but telling her we are praying for baby C and we were here if they needed anything. I really prayed. I am sort of a lapsed Catholic, but honestly I prayed and cried the entire weekend. I also hovered over both of my girls, especially my two year old. For a week now my friend and I have been in constant contact entitling our e-mails something like this: “Monday 4:45 p.m. Up-date on C”. The last update we got was that C’s feeding tube was being removed and she was singing her favorite songs.
My friend and I believe that honestly by a MIRACLE (and I mean a sheer MIRACLE,) her baby is alive and is going to be okay after a long stint of in-patient rehab.

I am begging all of my friends, readers that EVERYONE look on-line (go to the www.aap.org) with regards to your particular car seat and make sure you not only install your infant, toddler, or school aged kids car seat properly in the back seat, but make sure it is “tethered” securely to the back of the seat as well. While my friend’s baby’s Britax Car Seat was installed properly (honestly, this car seat ended up saving her life,) the tethered option was not used. If it had been ,Baby C ’s head injuries may not have been so severe.

My List of my must have’s must do’s for the week:
go onto www.aap.org to learn about total proper installation of your child(s) car seats

Hug and kiss your children and realize how lucky and blessed most of us are.

Posted by Deana | Filed Under Deana's Dish 

Comments

Got something to say?

You must be logged in to post a comment.