151: Laura's pain became her purpose

What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

Scott Johnson & Glassbox Media

True Crime, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2023

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’re a parent, you know – there is nothing more precious to you than your child. You would do anything for them, to keep them healthy, and happy, and safe. But sometimes, even the best parents with the best of intentions can have a brief lack of focus, and the results can be devastating. The subject we’re talking about today is hot car deaths. Outside of crashes, heatstroke is the leading cause of death in vehicles for children 14 and under. It happened 36 times in 2022, and so far in 2023 the total stands at 26. And that’s just in the US. For more than half of these, the person responsible unknowingly left the child in the vehicle. This is something that happens to loving, caring and protective parents. As you hear Laura talk about what happened, you’ll hear the pain in her voice. It’s a heartache that will never go away. But before this conversation is over, you’ll hear something else: determination. Because Laura is on a mission to make sure that what happened to her doesn’t happen to other parents. Content warning: this episode includes discussion of child death, and suicide. Laura’s website: https://AndersonsAlert.org Laura’s podcast: Beck’s Backseat to Change - http://becksbackseat.com/ Lots of information about car safety for children is at Kids and Cars: KidsAndCars.org The children’s book, Wherever You Go, by Pat Zietlow Miller – If you would like a signed copy, or you prefer to support an indie bookstore (and you should!), you can contact Mystery To Me Books in Madison Wisconsin: · Email – info@mysterytomebooks.com · Phone – 608-283-9332 And they will ship a signed copy of the book directly to you. Or, you can order the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316400025/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image The Amazon Wishlist we discussed: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/17KQCVHDU4Y0E?ref_=wl_share Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here: https://WhatWasThatLike.com/151 Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai. Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well) Head to factormeals.com/wwtl50 and use code wwtl50 to get 50% off! What Was That Like is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/whatwas for 10% off your first month. For a limited time, save $10 on your first StoryWorth purchase when you go to StoryWorth.com/what Head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code WHAT and receive UP TO 39% off or UP TO $300 off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're a parent, you know there is nothing more precious to you than your child.
0:14.1	You would do anything for them to keep them healthy and happy and safe.
0:23.9	But sometimes, even the best parents with the best of intentions can have a brief lack
0:29.7	of focus and the results can be devastating.
0:36.1	The subject we're talking about today is hot car deaths.
0:41.6	Outside of crashes, heat stroke is the leading cause of death in vehicles for children 14
0:48.5	and under.
0:51.0	In 2022, it happened 36 times.
0:56.2	So far in 2023, the total stands at 26 and that's just in the US.
1:04.6	For more than half of these, the person responsible unknowingly left the child in the vehicle.
1:12.6	This is something that happens to loving, caring and protective parents.
1:19.7	As you hear Laura talk about what happened, you'll hear the pain in her voice.
1:25.8	It's a heartache that will never go away.
1:29.7	But before this conversation is over, you'll hear something else, determination.
1:37.6	Because Laura is on a mission to make sure that what happened to her doesn't happen to
1:43.1	other parents.
1:46.3	Like many of the stories we talk about on this podcast, today's episode requires some
1:51.2	alerts about the content.
1:53.8	You can find the content warnings for this episode in the show notes at whatwasthatlike.com
2:00.0	There is a girl hanging by her broken legs from the telephone wire and I called 911 and
2:17.5	I said I found a baby.
2:19.1	I turned around, I see a gun pointed at me close enough I could touch it.
	...

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