Who expects an amusement park trip to end in a rush to the emergency room?! Especially for a 2-year-old girl??
Sadly, that’s what happened to California mom Amelia Zamora when she and her 2-year-old daughter went down a slide at a play park together. It resulted in a horrific injury for the toddler!
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On TikTok this week, an old video by Zamora resurfaced and went mega-viral. Originally posted in September, the video recounts how six years ago, the woman’s then-2-year-old daughter suffered a gruesome leg break after the duo went down a very steep slide together. In addition to a seven-second TikTok clip showing their descent down the fateful slide, Zamora explained why she will never again go down a slide with her children:
“we went to a fun theme park on a sunny morning with friends. I had my oldest who was 2.5 at the time and my 2 month old. My oldest wanted to go down the big slide and asked me countless times to go with her. A friend offered to watch the baby while I went with her. Little did I know seconds later our lives would change forever. The slide was steeper than we thought and we crash landed at the bottom. That crash landed us going to the ER and them doing an x-ray on our daughter’s leg because she was crying, lethargic and in pain. An x-ray confirmed she broke her femur.”
OMG!!
Basically, Zamora accidentally landed on her daughter at the bottom of the slide, after being carried into the little girl by their momentum. By landing awkwardly on the girl’s leg, the result was truly life-changing. The child’s broken femur necessitated a nearly full-body cast due to the severity of the injury and her young, fast-developing age. As Zamora recounted, the experience of seeing her daughter in a cast — and knowing she (accidentally) caused it — was too much to handle:
“She had to be put under anesthesia and get the cast put on. I sobbed. For days I cried full of mom guilt and heartache watching my babygirl like that. We learned all the tips and tricks for the spica cast life and we made the most of it. it was gut wrenching and hard. You hear all the time not to go down the slide with kids because they put their legs out and it could get caught on the sides and break their legs etc. but you never think it could happen to you, and it wasn’t even the fact her leg got caught, it was the steepness of the slide and the fact that I stopped at the bottom but our momentum kept us going.”
So, so scary. We can’t even imagine. That poor girl!! And that poor momma!
You can watch the viral TikTok (below):
@mamabearreview we went to a fun theme park on a sunny morning with friends. I had my oldest who was 2.5 at the time and my 2 month old. My oldest wanted to go down the big slide and asked me countless times to go with her. A friend offered to watch the baby while I went with her. Little did I know seconds later our lives would change forever. . The slide was steeper than we thought and we crash landed at the bottom. That crash landed us going to the ER and them doing an x-ray on our daughter’s leg because she was crying, lethargic and in pain. An x-ray confirmed she broke her femur. ???????? . You can read the full story on my blog where I go into way more detail, but long exhausting story short: she ended up in a #spicacast Basically a full body cast which made life a bit more challenging. She had to be put under anesthesia and get the cast put on. I sobbed. For days I cried full of mom guilt and heartache watching my babygirl like that. We learned all the tips and tricks for the spica cast life and we made the most of it. ❤️ . it was gut wrenching and hard. You hear all the time not to go down the slide with kids because they put their legs out and it could get caught on the sides and break their legs etc. but you never think it could happen to you, and it wasn’t even the fact her leg got caught, it was the steepness of the slide and the fact that I stopped at the bottom but our momentum kept us going. ???? . She had to re-learn how to walk once the cast was off, she was apprehensive of slides for months afterwards, and I will never forget that day and those loooong months after. So here’s my PSA to those parents who think it won’t happen to them: don’t risk it. hold their hand off the side or just give them encouragement to go alone and if the slide looks too steep, be prepared to catch them at the bottom because looking back, I wish I would’ve just told her not that slide. ❤️ . #spicacast #slidestory #parentingmoments #reallifeproblems #spica
Over on her blog, Zamora shared more. For one, she and her husband were both questioned by authorities over how the girl’s injury was sustained “because apparently that type of break is big in child abuse.”
OMG…
The mournful momma also recounted how doctors had to put her daughter under anesthesia to fit her carefully with the full-body cast. For five weeks after the slide incident, the little girl was in the cast and had to be very, very careful about movement. As a two-year-old!! Unimaginable!
Zamora wrote:
“Seeing your baby girl in any hospital situation not only is terrifying because it’s a hospital, it’s scary. I just wanted to make her feel better. If I could have taken it all away and put it on me, I would’ve. Watching her get wheeled back into the OR-type room was heartbreaking. I cried. Thankfully, my sister-in-law was with me because it was hard to sit there and it was an hour or so process of her being back there. It was gut-wrenching.”
There were other challenges, too. For one, the girl couldn’t go in a car seat with the cast on — so she pretty much stayed at home for more than a month with either mom or dad (or both) around to watch her very carefully. She was NOT potty trained at the time, either, as Zamora wrote:
“She couldn’t fit in her car seat, we couldn’t go anywhere. We couldn’t really do much because she couldn’t sit, she couldn’t bend at the waist. It was challenging. She wasn’t potty-trained at the time, and so [we had to] change diapers and shove diapers in every corner just so that the cast didn’t get wet, and thankfully, I found ways. … We got a blow up hair tank wash so at least I could wash her hair and her face and her upper body.”
Talk about going above and beyond.
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Thankfully, after weeks of immobility, the cast finally came off. As promised by momma, the little girl received a cake pop on the morning the cast was taken off, as well as a new toy to play with now that she could move around again:
“She got the cast off in the morning and she did get her cake pop, and was the happiest little clam to be able to sit normally in her car seat. Then [we] went home and I had gotten her a toy, so when we got home she could actually sit and play with stuff, but she was definitely weary to sit — you’re pretty much in a laying position for four weeks.”
Awww!
This is a wild story, but there is one good thing about it, we suppose: kids are REALLY resilient. As heartbreaking as it is to watch this whole thing unfold, Zamora and her husband have found solace in knowing their little girl is now pretty much back to normal! It’s been six years since the shocking situation first occurred, and the girl is as happy-go-lucky as ever:
“I don’t know if she actually truly remembers being in it or if it’s one of those, ‘I know I was in it because I’ve seen pictures,’ but for a while after, she would talk about it. She would tell people, ‘I had a full cast and now I don’t and I can run.’ She definitely knew she was in it and was very excited when she was out of it. And for a while, she wouldn’t use her leg. She wanted everyone to carry her everywhere so that she remembered.”
Momma will never forget, though. Concluding her tale, Zamora recalled how writing down her thoughts helped ease the pain of seeing her daughter go through such a traumatic experience:
“There were definitely nights that I stayed up way too late, just processing it and writing everything down that helped. That was my way of emotionally coping with it and trying to get over it and realizing, obviously once I saw years later, she’s fine. She plays soccer, she swims, she has no real long-term effect from it.”
And now, six years later, everything seems OK.
Wow. What an unreal and jaw-dropping story.
We are just SO glad that there were no long-term repercussions for the little girl. Now, it’s just a crazy tale she’ll tell to friends and loved ones as she gets older!
Thoughts, Perezcious readers??