A relieved mother has shared the terrifying story of a potentially fatal accident that happened in her home.
Shayna, who is an American pediatric nurse and who runs a business teaching first aid to parents, was downstairs when she heard a “loud sound” from her bedroom.
As she ran upstairs, the woman — who calls herself the.medical.mamas on Instagram — said she “had a feeling”.
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What faced her confirmed those fears.
Her two-year old son, Brayden, had opened all the drawers on a wide, solid wood, chest of drawers and tried to use them as steps to climb up.
The dresser had fallen over and could easily have squashed him or crushed a body part.
“Luckily, he managed to escape it and just got his leg stuck in the gap between the bottom drawer and the floor (not actually stuck under the dresser by the grace of God),” Shayna said.
She explained that she has the kids’ furniture attached to their walls but “never thought to do ours”.
As a medical educator, Shayna said the story was hard for her to share.
“Total mum fail and it freaking mortifies me that he could’ve been seriously hurt,” she said.
“So, take my mistakes and learn from them.”
Since Shayna posted the video, she told 7Life she has had “hundreds if not thousands of messages of this similar thing happening to other families”.
“I have heard from parents thinking, ‘Oh my gosh I never would have thought about that’ and saying how grateful they are that this video went viral and they were able to be educated,” Shayna said.
“It’s really been cool to educate families and hopefully prevent something serious from happening.”
Furniture deaths
The danger of furniture falling on children is widespread but little known in Australia.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is aware of at least 28 deaths associated with toppling furniture in Australia since 2000.
It also estimates there are at least 900 injuries a year requiring medical treatment, with children under five years of age being most at risk.
Free-standing furniture such as chests of drawers, cupboards, wardrobes, storage units, bookshelves and entertainment units pose the greatest risk of toppling over, resulting in injury or death.
Shayna is now busy securing all her furniture to the walls and has advised her followers to do the same.
“We have ordered dresser securement latches and my husband is going to be putting them up as soon as they get here,” she said.
“We’re actually going to be filming a video on how easy it is to do it in the hopes more people are empowered to do it.”
Describing the incident as the scariest experience of her life, she added: “Let this video be your reminder to always make sure your dressers are strapped to the wall”.
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