A mother of six has been worried about her 18-month-old son for a very long time. He always seemed to throw a temper tantrum and vomit constantly anytime he was in the car. When she finally figured out the cause of his discomfort, she was horrified.
At the time she started noticing Max’s reaction whenever he was in the car, Nichola Griffiths simply alluded it to a terrible case of car sickness.
During every drive, the boy would scream and cry. It would often get so bad that he would make himself sick.
She and her husband, Nigel, tried to get some car sickness medicine for him, but they were told that he was too young to be prescribed. The mum simply accepted that they would just have to put up with it.
One day, Nigel was strapping Max into his car seat without a shirt on, and he discovered something that horrified him. When they took him out of the seat, they noticed a big red mark on his spine.
Nichola and Nigel inspected the car seat closely and found a hard plastic spike, hidden under the fabric. The spike had been poking their son in the spine all this time.
The mother was heartbroken to discover how much pain her son had been going through. If Max had not been shirtless when they strapped him in, they probably would have never made the discovery as, according to his mother, the spike did not make a dent through his clothes. Nichola said:
It was like putting him in a torture chamber every time we went somewhere for the last two years. I just feel sick thinking about it. It’s really affected me emotionally.
After contacting the retail company that sold them the seat, they were given another one as a replacement. As soon as Max began to use a new car seat, his discomfort stopped.
The mum said:
Ever since we’ve started using another seat, the problem has just gone away. He loves car journeys now.
The retail company offered the family an apology and assured Nichola that it was a one-off and an unfortunate incident.
