A Louisiana mother suffered the loss of her one-year-old son in a car accident, and believes her Facebook friends may have been able to save his life.
Holly Wagner uploaded a photo of her son, Cameron, riding in a forward-facing car seat weeks before the crash, and wishes someone would have told her that the seat should have been rear-facing.
On April 27, 2013, Wagner received a phone call from a police officer informing her that her then-boyfriend and two sons had been involved in a car accident in her car. The boyfriend sped through a stop sign at 55 mph, and struck another vehicle, flipping Wagner's car several times.
"He may have also been texting, I am not sure," Wagner told Yahoo Parenting. The boyfriend suffered head trauma and a broken leg, and her three-year-old son, Connor, had a broken arm and internal bruising. Cameron, who was 11 months old at the time, was in a forward-facing car seat with only the arm straps buckled. He was ejected from the vehicle, and landed in a ditch.
The baby suffered punctured lungs and head trauma, and had part of his skull removed to relieve the swelling. Cameron was in the hospital for two weeks, and turned one while hospitalised. Ultimately, Wagner had to make a devastating decision.
"Since his brain wasn't absorbing any nutrients from his feeding tube, he was starving to death," she recounted. "I could either let him pass on his own or remove him from life support."
She let him pass away on May 12, 2013 – the day after Mother's Day. Now, she wants other parents to hear her story, and learn the correct way to secure their children in car seats.
"No one told me I was doing it wrong," the 23-year-old said. "Even when I was discharged from the hospital after Cameron was born, the nurses couldn't assist with the car seat for liability issues. So I just did what I thought was correct, what my parents did when I was growing up."
After keeping him in a rear-facing seat for months, Wagner decided to turn him around.
"I wanted to keep an eye on him," she admitted.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping children in rear-facing car seats until they are at least two years old or meet the highest height and weight allowed by the seat manufacturer.
Safe Kids Worldwide CEO Kate Carr also reminded parents to check the car seats' expiration date, check the car's manual to see where the seat should be positioned in the car, and make sure straps are pulled tightly.
