Stuffed animals arebeing used by the ‘Look Before You Lock’ program as a tool to help save thelives of infants and children. White County MedicalCenter partnered with the ‘LookBefore You Lock’ Program last year and recently received a new delivery ofstuffed animals to distribute to parents in the hospital’s New Life Center.
New Life Center Nurse Tracy Williams, RN,shows off the ‘Look Before You Lock’ stuffed animals
Established by Canyon Williams, age 10, of Ward, the ‘LookBefore You Lock’ program reminds parents about the importance of checking carseats before locking the car doors. Each stuffed animal comes with a cardattached that instructs parents to place the animal in the front seat with themwhen a child is buckled into the car seat. Then, parents place the animal inthe car seat when the child is not on board.
Jamie Heffington,of Heber Springs, recently delivered her daughter Paiten Trinitii Buxton in theNew Life Center,and was among the first mom to receive a new stuffed animal from the nurses.“It is understandable to forget a diaper bag in the car, but leaving a baby inthe car is unthinkable,” she said.
WCMC was the firsthospital in Arkansasto become a ‘Look Before You Lock’ healthcare partner. Program creatorCanyon Williams becameinterested in the issue when his mother Juanita shared information with him onthe number of children that perished in 2010 after being left alone invehicles.
“We were bothshocked by the numbers and inspired that something as simple as a stuffedanimal could literally save a child’s life,” Juanita said. “He set out to raisemoney and collect stuffed animals through a program at school and localfundraisers.”
The statistics oninfant mortality came from Janette Fennell, president and founder of Kids ‘NCars, an organization that seeks to prevent injury and death in and aroundmotor vehicles. Fennell founded the non-profit organization in 1996 to educateparents on the importance of vehicle safety. According to data gathered by Kids‘N Cards, an estimated 38 children die each year due to a heat stroke afterbeing left in a car.
Fennell pointedout how vehicles present other dangers for children, as her organization alsotracks the number of childhood deaths related to non-traffic accidents. In2010, Kids ‘N Cars discovered that more than 1,000 accidents involving 1,362children, of those, there were 239 fatalities as a result of frontovers,backovers, power windows, trunk entrapments and vehicles are accidentally setin motion. Hundreds more were hospitalized due to the severity of theirinjuries.
“Themost dangerous mistake a parent or caregiver can make is to think it cannothappen to them or their family,” Fennell said. “Children are inquisitive, sothey are drawn to vehicles and also like to play pretend, as though they aredriving like mom or dad. It is important for parents to establish rules thatmake it clear that their children should never be alone in a vehicle. Also,remember to keep your vehicles locked when not in use, and place the keys outof the reach of curious children.”
