While Kirsti Clark and her husband Christopher were out running some errands with their young daughters, they never imagined they would end up visiting the emergency room.
It was just a usual day in the life of this Scottish couple as they left home with their girls, 3-year-old Malena and 3-week-old Harper. They were doing some shopping and taking baby Harper out of her car seat every time they stopped at a shop.
Image credit: viral hatch
It was a bit of a long journey due to rush-hour traffic, it took them 1 hour and 45 minutes to finally arrive home and Harper was strapped into her car seat as usual.
After they got inside, the newborn spent another 15 minutes in her car seat as her parents put her older sister to bed.
Kirsti explained: “When we got home it was way past Malena’s bedtime so we brought Harper in her car seat and she stayed in there for 15 minutes as we got Malena into bed.” My husband got Harper out and put her on his knee but she looked like she couldn’t get comfy so he laid her down on her mat and she was kicking about.”
After laying the baby down on her play mat her lips turned blue, they realized something was terribly wrong as the baby´s jaw was clenched shut and white foam started frothing out of her nose and mouth.
Harper was having a seizure.
The parents were completely shaken since it didn´t look like a normal seizure, she was arching her back and throwing her head back.
The parents rushed the baby to hospital where she was resuscitated. She spent the night having tests but fortunately she was okay and is now in good health.
Doctors at the hospital warned that any child who spends more than an hour in a car seat can be at risk of suffering from Oxygen Deprivation.
Everybody knows that leaving small kids, babies or even pets inside cars for some hours is not a good idea.
Image credit: viral hatch
But this situation was different, spending two hours in her car seat caused such a severe oxygen deprivation that when her father took her out and laid her down, the sudden increase sent her body into a shock.
Kirsti realized what many people don´t actually know: even such a short amount of time can put a baby´s life at risk.
Now the Mother wants to raise awareness and warn other parents about this. No one should go through the same situation.
‘I would tell every parent to just really carefully watch their babies and if they don’t absolutely need to be in the car seat take them out because it is not worth what we had to go through. ‘Watch your baby and know your baby. If something doesn’t seem quite right take them straight to hospital.’