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A mother of three warns other parents after her daughter has suffered multiple fractures in her leg while they were sliding down a sled together.
In September 2015, Heather Clare took her 12-month-old twins, Meadow and Matthew, to Heckscher Park in Huntington, New York, for a day of fun on the playground. After placing Matthew on his lap and taking him on one of the nearly 10-foot-long slides in the park, Clare gathered Meadow and then went down – and that's when things went horribly wrong.
"I took Meadow on the slip on my lap, and halfway through the slide, I realized that his foot was stuck between me and the sled," says Clare, 35. "I was trying to keep us from slipping so that I could let go of her foot, and my husband had a picture of us at that very moment."
Heather and Meadow Clare
Heather Clare
As shown by the now viral image posted by Clare on his Facebook account, Meadow's right leg is stuck between the slide, twisting it in the opposite direction. The photo, taken just before the injury, shows Clare and Meadow smiling, unaware of what was going to happen.
"When we got to the bottom of the slide, she was crying badly," recalls Clare of the injury, which occurred just three days after Meadow took his first steps. "It was terrible, especially when I felt like I put it in this position – it was completely preventable."
Heather Clare Meadow's daughter
Heather Clare
Clare rushed her daughter to the emergency room, where doctors found Meadow had fractured her shin and fibula in her right leg. The child of one year then spends the next four weeks wearing a pink plaster.
During Meadow 's recovery, both the emergency room and the orthopedic doctors told Clare that slipping injuries were surprisingly common.
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"They both told us that there is no sure way to get off the slide with your child on your lap," says Clare. "Even if parents get their kids' feet in, they can get stuck under their parents, they really advise one person at a time on a slide."
According to a 2017 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than 350,000 children under the age of six were injured on toboggans in the United States between 2002 and 2015. Of the injuries reported, toddlers aged 12 to 23 months had the highest percentage of injuries, many being leg fractures.
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Although it was feared that the injury would result in a decrease in the size of Meadow's leg, less than three years after the incident, she fully recovered.
Since then, Clare has shown the shocking image to everyone that she can in the hope that she can prevent another child from experiencing the excruciating pain of her daughter.
"I spoke with other moms, and they had no idea, so that really pushed me to publish the photo publicly on Facebook, and I wanted to reach more people." "says Clare. "I did not expect it to spread so fast"
The position has collected some 88,000 shares and more than 10,000 reactions on Facebook since June 24th.
"There have been so many positive comments," she says about the response to the photo. "I think it could really help people avoid this situation."
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