In September 2015, Heather decided to take her one-year-old twins to a playground. She and her husband took Meadow and Matthew to a park in Huntington, New York, where Heather and her daughter decided to go down the slide together. Sounds like an appropriate thing to do with a one-year-old, right?
Even though this is something you have likely done with your parents as a child, or something you have done with your own kids, it didn't turn out too well for this family. Meadow sat on her mother's lap as her dad took a photo of them both, but by time she got to the bottom of the slide, she was in floods of tears.
Heather has now shared the photo, which was taken a split-second before the pain hit. While they had been fine doing it with her brother Matthew, this time around Meadow's foot had gotten caught between the slide and her mother, breaking her leg. In a Facebook post published last week, Heather explained exactly why she felt the need to share her story with the world:
"So every year I do a PSA on going down a slide with your child on your lap. When Meadow was 12 months old (I went down with Matthew first, but he was lucky) , I went down the slide with her on my lap and her foot got caught between me and the slide. This picture is the moment her leg was breaking. She’s still smiling... because it was happening at this exact moment."
"When we went to the ER, the super empathetic ? doctor lectured me on how common this injury is. I had no idea. I thought everyone took their kids down the slide. I strongly feel every playground should have a warning sign, but since I’ve never seen one (and we go to ALOT of playgrounds), I share this picture every year in hopes that the pain Meadow felt and the guilt that I still feel will save other babies and parents from the same.
"Don’t ever go down a slide with a baby on your lap. There is no SAFE way to go down a slide with your little."
In her further comments, the mother-of-two explained that this apparently one of the top three reasons young children are taken to the emergency room during Spring and Summer. Also, for any commenters at the ready, Heather explained that they hadn't started out in that position, and soon moved when she realised how her daughter had moved.
The post has now gone viral, with 16,000 comments and nearly 100,000 shares in less than a week. "Thanks for sharing this. We all need to be reminded that this is not safe," wrote one parent, echoing many other comments made on the post.
Fortunately, Meadow has now made a full recovery, and is now a healthy and happy four-year-old. But I'm sure there are plenty of parents out there that will think twice before heading down the slide with their child in the future.
