The legal minutest age to forward-face a child in a car seat in the mainstream of states is two years old. However, Tanya Bender is exemplifying why “legal” does not always equate to “secure” by distribution the tragic tale of her family.
Tragic proceedings occurred less than three months after her granddaughter Aniyah’s February 28th second birthday. Aniyah was looking onward to being picked up by her mother on May 22nd. Bender aided her in getting into her forward-facing car seat, which was connected in obedience with state law and manufacturer orders. The car tossed upside down after hitting with a brick pillar holding a business sign five miles down the road.
Aniyah was “inside beheaded” at the C1 vertebra due to the power of the collision. She sustained several fractures from C1 to C7 and a total tear at C5, which governs arm crusade. According to Bender, the medics told her that Aniyah would have been uninjured if she had been facing retrograde.
Aniyah was life-lighted following a torturous 12-hour stay in a nearby hospital. She was tailored with a halo brace and had her whole neck fused during an eight-hour procedure.
It was a long and wearing road to recovery. She had to relearn basic skills like sedentary, walking, and using her hand during months of reintegration at home after two weeks in the hospital. Her lower arm has some movement again after more than two years of reliable work related therapy, but she will never fully recover.
Tanya Bender
Aniyah will always be incomplete due to her complete neck synthesis; she will not be able to contribute participate in high-impact sports, cheerleading, horseback riding, or trampolines. There is just too much chance of re-injury. Her convalescence is nothing short of a wonder, as her doctors stress how rare it is to survive such an wound.
Bender confidences that by sharing Aniyah’s story, parents will be fortified to keep their kids facing backwards for as long as possible even longer than is obligatory by law.
She states, “She would not have been hurt at all if she had been rear-opposite,” something she wishes they had known previous to that momentous day.
