Lindsay Dewey opened up to her 54,000 Instagram followers about the unfortunate household circumstances that led to her child’s death
Parenting influencer Lindsay Dewey shared the tragic news that her 22-month-old son, Reed, died in February after an unsecured mirror fell on top of him.
According to Dewey’s Instagram Stories summarizing the fatal incident, the toddler was playing with a suction cup bowl by sticking it onto a mirror and pulling it back and forth. Eventually, the motion brought the fragile surface down, and the mirror fell on top of Reed at their home in Idaho.
As she mentioned in her upload, Dewey didn’t know he was using the bowl as a toy, since she had last seen him playing with magnetic tiles. The mom of three was just 10 feet away from her son at the time, cooking dinner in another room. She was only alerted to his proximity to the mirror when she heard it fall down.
Despite the mirror’s “heavy duty” weight, Dewey managed to lift it off of Reed within five seconds.
“When it initially happened. I was so confused as to HOW it happened … There is no way our kids are strong enough to move it, let alone pull it down on themselves. And we knew that so the urgency to anchor it wasn’t there. It seemed impossible for it to just randomly fall down for no reason considering its placement and weight,” she wrote. “But when I picked it up and leaned it back on the wall, I noticed his bowl was stuck to it … I figured out EXACTLY how it happened.”
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She also noted that she is a particularly “protective mom,” with child locks on windows, doors, gates, outlets and more, and anchors on items like dressers and chests. The mirror that killed her son was even regularly stabilized by a chair in front of it, though they had just moved the room’s furnishings around to clean up after their dog peed on their rug.
“There were so many details that led up to this being a perfect storm. All in all, just a tragic unexpected accident. That we can never take back,” Dewey said.
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Reed was rushed to the hospital, where he fell into a coma due to his injuries. As his mom explained on her Instagram Stories, he had limited pupil response, breathing autonomy and brain functionality due to swelling. Days later, his doctors determined that Reed was brain dead, and Dewey shared that the child’s organs were donated to five recipients.
“I’ve been telling myself ‘If he doesn’t get his miracle, he will become one’ and that’s the only thing that’s getting me through. Even though his wasn’t saved, he is saving lives,” Dewey captioned her emotional update on Feb. 21.
“The worst day of our lives became the best day of someone else’s and for that I will forever be grateful for our little hero baby. You’re someone’s miracle, Reed Michael. 5 little kids miracle to be exact. I couldn’t stop thinking about the families who got the best call of their life, their answered prayer,” she continued. “Even though this is not fair on every single level, we’re so proud of you baby.”
A local clothing brand called Little Hunters Wife has since produced a line of t-shirts and sweatshirts in Dewey’s late son’s memory. On March 7, the store shared that all profits from the “Remembering Reed” collection would be donated directly to Dewey and her husband, Eric.
