Trusting someone else with your child is a big responsibility. You know if anything were to happen when you were around, you would protect your little one with your life, but would someone else do the same?
Thanks to a nanny's selfless act, a 2-year-old boy's life was saved after she deliberately put herself in harm's way.
Caroline Maurer, who is a student, had been Fox's nanny since he was only four months old. She had stopped working full time for the family a few months before the accident, but was asked to watch Fox for a single day when the incident occurred.
"He's a wonderful, sweet little boy. I love him so much," she said.
Maurer was taking the toddler out for a walk in his stroller when a car ran a four-way stop sign and was barreling right towards them, only a block from the child's home.
"It was going to be him hit since he was kind of more in front of me. So, as the car turned in "“ I was screaming, 'Stop! Stop!' "“ and pushed him as hard as I could to get him out of the way," Maurer said.
That's when she placed herself between the car and the boy's stroller.
"The car came and crushed my hands, the front bumper "“ and I was thrown a few feet, I don't know," she recalled.
As a result of the incident, Maurer fractured bones in both of her hands, wrists and arms. But it wasn't her injuries that had her concerned.
Maurer was heartbroken at the reality that she would be unable to get the child out of his stroller after the accident.
"Fox was strapped in and I couldn't get him out," she said, pausing as she fought back tears. "Because my hands were crushed and I was on the ground."
The child didn't receive a direct impact from the car, and thankfully escaped with only minor scrapes and bruises.
A paramedic on the scene said that because of Maurer's actions, she saved Fox's life.
Maurer was hospitalized for more than two weeks, before taking on two months of rehabilitation.
Since the accident, she has undergone three surgeries and because of weakness in her hands, wrists and arms, had to delay physical therapy for three months.
Fox's parents started a YouCaring page to help Maurer deal with her bills.
She hasn't been able to regain strength in her hands, so she has been unable to work or go to school since she was injured.
"As a mom, you give your kid to somebody else ... your hope and your dream is that they're going to treat your kid like their own," the boy's mother, Courtney Davis said. "I'm just so grateful to her."
Source: KTLA5
