Tell her to watch my son’s videos and read his story. January will mark 2 years since his accident and he is just now back to his campus life. He STILL is getting everything back that he lost that day. Challenges with his gait, fatigue, lingering weakness from the stroke. Tell her she might not be hurt as bad as he was, but why take the chance of getting hurt at all?
Sorry, I read your replies out of order. OF COURSE YOU DID THE RIGHT THING! Do you know I had that very thought when I saw my son’s loft? Hid Dad, his sister and him all talked me out of it. “Mom, I’m not going to fall out of my bed!” Well, as you know…he DID and it almost took his life.
This happens all the time! College campuses are used for summer camps and kids end up in bunk and loft beds. I may have to do a campaign on summer camps only next Spring to help bring awareness there. The colleges and universities HAVE TO GET ON BOARD! This is such a preventable thing!
Zoosermom!! YOU GO GIRL!! Thank you for sharing this with me. Brings this Momma on a mission a huge smile this morning!
Are you the mom of the Ga Tech student? If so, great job you are doing to spread awareness!
Yes, I am! Thank you, @jym626. I reached out to the CDC here in Atlanta and was fortunate to be hooked up with some great folks at the CPSC. RAD is really starting to take off and it is extremely exciting!
Good job! As one who has worked for decades in the field of brain injury, your voice is needed!
My DD who is a freshman Mechanical Eng. major at a large flagship hit her head on a friend’s lofted bed while in her room studying for an exam. Instead of taking the exam she wound up in the ER getting a CT scan and now has a semi serious concussion. Had to drop a class (comp Sci) because she cannot look at computer screens for long amounts of time and had to get temporary disabled status in order to keep up in her other classes - Calc, Physics and Global engineering. What started out as an awesome experience has turned into a very difficult one especially because she is 2000 miles away from us. School has been very helpful but very quick to go into CYA mode when pushed about how many concussions result each year from banging heads on lofted beds. We did make sure to check that there was a railing so she wouldn’t fall out but to be honest whacking her head hard enough to need a CT scan didn’t occur to us. Anecdotally we have learned that this happens on her campus and many others quite a bit. So - one more thing to warn your kids about!! My DH suggested to cut a pool noodle in half and use zip ties to attach it to the bottom edge of the bed - at leas that will soften the blow a bit.
D made a rail for her loft bed, thanks to this thread.
@rhododendron If you don’t mind, what did you do to make the rail? How long, how high, what is it made of. That sort of thing.
Sorry, @m0minmd, I have only a fuzzy picture of what D did to make a rail. It seems to be about 6" above the mattress.
@RADRailMom- My daughter went to a summer camp at Caltech and she was placed in a tiny room off campus with the beds lofted over the desks, no rails. There was no way to take the bed-frame off the desk because the room was too small. I was really nervous but my husband and daughter both told me I was “over-reacting.” The beds were so high that the girls couldn’t sit up at night without banging their heads on the roof. Fortunately, both girls pulled their mattresses off the bunks and put them on the desks and slept on the desks. I want to thank you because when my daughter goes to college next year, I will definitely make sure not to leave until her room situation is safe. My instincts kept saying, “this is dangerous” and I let myself be talked out of it.
@RADRailMom I just wanted to thank you for posting this! I was talking to my sister-in-aw recently who told me her son got stuck with a very high bunked bed at his school and that he absolutely hates sleeping that high up. I told her your story and gave her a link to your web site. She is working on getting him a bed rail.
Please keep up the awareness campaign! I am so happy that I read this thread…
@RADRailMom, thank you so much for this thread. DS is a freshman at a college that has never had, and never allowed, lofted or bunk beds, but guess what? In response to requests they now offer adjustable height beds in some dorms. DS’ room has them, and the default is the highest setting, which allows the desk and dresser to go underneath. I’d told DS about the dangers and said that his bed would be at the lowest setting. He put up no argument. Fortunately there is plenty of room so it wasn’t an issue.
I hope that your son continues to a full recovery. You are generous to work so hard for the safety of others. You will never know how many injuries you have prevented.
Thank you thank you thank you to all of YOU for encouraging us in this fight! We are currently acquiring funding for a really exciting project in Spring '17! Georgia Tech (my son’s school) offers seniors an opportunity called Capstone. The seniors pick a project to research, develop and build a prototype which are showcased at a huge expo attended by manufacturers at the end of the semester. RAD is sponsoring two teams to come up with the next generation of loft and bunk beds that builds the safety feature right into the design of the bed! Stay tuned!!
The capstone project sounds great, @RADRailMom.
Just found out that Georgia State University in Atlanta is installing rails on all of its lofted beds!! YAY!!!
I’m bumping this up since a new batch of freshmen are moving in dorms soon, and many will be assigned to rooms with lofted beds with no railings .
I just heard a story of a woman who fell out of a top bunk and broke her hip.
Good to bump this up. I looked back at old photos and saw that D’s bunk did have a rail but I remember that the ladder down was next to a window. There was no AC so the window was open often. The fall would have been 10 stories. I worried the whole year she was in that dorm.
I appreciate the reminder to check beds at the dorms. I’m so sorry about your family’s pain.