“It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right.”
Lindsay Dewey is using her son’s accidental mirror death as a warning to parents everywhere.
The homemaker and mother of three, who revealed in February that her 22-month-old son, Reed, had died, is opening up about the “perfect storm” that led to the toddler’s tragedy.
Taking to her Instagram Stories, Dewey shared that Reed was playing with a suction cup bowl when he stuck it onto an unsecured mirror before attempting to pry it off.
“He pulled the mirror down on himself,” Dewey explains in her Stories. “10 feet away from me.”
Dewey says she was in the kitchen preparing dinner when she heard the heavy mirror fall.
“It’s one of those heavy duty mirrors that lean on the wall,” she continues, adding that she never felt the need to anchor it to the wall because she never expected it to fall.
She also explained that she usually had an accent chair in front of the mirror, but it was moved off to the side after her dog — who normally isn’t allowed indoors — peed on a nearby rug.
“There were so many details that led up to this being a perfect storm,” she wrote in her Stories. “All in all, just a tragic unexpected accident. That we can never take back.”
Dewey's son was in a coma for several days after mirror accident
When she leaned the mirror back onto the wall, she noticed her son’s suction cup bowl still stuck to the mirror.
“Within 5 seconds I lifted it off of him,” Dewey wrote. “Mom strength I guess.”
She initially thought her son was in shock because his eyes were open and he wasn’t crying. As she tended to him, she quickly realized something was “very wrong.”
Dewey’s husband, Eric — a firefighter — arrived on the scene shortly after and first responders followed several minutes later.
"The mirror hit his head in the most precise way and fractured his skull," Dewey wrote in her Stories.
Reed was rushed to the hospital before falling into a coma with limited pupil response, breathing autonomy and brain functionality due to the swelling, according to People.
Doctors determined that he was brain dead several days later. His 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,” she wrote in a February post. “Even though his wasn’t saved, he is saving lives.”
"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,” she added. “You’re someone’s miracle, Reed Michael. 5 little kids miracle to be exact.”
Dewey says she and her husband were hesitant to share their story due to the potential backlash they might receive.
“We’re only sharing this because we didn’t want this happening to anybody,” she wrote in her Stories. “A few close people we’ve told literally started naming off items in their house that weren’t anchored.”
She further explained that the mirror in question wasn’t designed to be mounted or hung on the wall due to its weight. It was, instead, designed to lean against the wall.
“BUT it can still be anchored,” she wrote — noting that she anchored hers to the wall immediately after the accident to prevent it from happening again.
Dewey and her husband are also parents to a 4-year-old son Tucker and 6-year-old daughter Breegan.
