HEROESSurvivors

Who: Ryne and Rachel Jungling

What: Positional Asphyxiation awareness www.rynejungling.com

Why: Ryne and Rachel Jungling are on a mission to spread awareness of the danger of improper safety and preventable child injuries, an issue incredibly personal to them. In January of 2019, Rachel Jungling took her elevenmonth-old twins, Linnea and Anders, to daycare. Linnea was taken out of her car seat, but Anders remained in his car seat on the ground to nap. Setting a car seat on the ground removes the 45-degree angle required to prevent children’s heads from slumping forward when sleeping, which can cause positional asphyxiation by cutting off their airway. When the daycare provider returned, she found Anders no longer breathing. “When the daycare provider found Anders, she called 911, and they did CPR on him for 40 minutes... They got his heart restarted, but he was never coming back,” says Rachel. In spite of the tragedy of her loss, Rachel is very grateful to the emergency responders who gave her and her husband a chance to say goodbye to their son. “They saved his life even if it was only for three days, and that really matters to us,” says Rachel.

Both Rachel and Ryne were teachers at the time of their son’s passing, and both their schools were incredibly supportive. Ryne, a teacher at Mandan High School, was approached by the student council and their advisor about starting a scholarship in honor of Anders. The scholarship goes to one Mandan High student looking to go into the first responder field after graduation. “Every field that has anything to do with emergency response, they were all a part of our story… that we can even provide a little bit of support for emergency response training is really cool,” says Ryne.

In addition to the scholarship, the Junglings advocate in whatever way they can to help prevent preventable injuries in children, whether that’s by sharing their story on various news networks including the Today Show, sharing their story in the third trimester packets at North Dakota hospitals that go home with parents, or working with Safe Kids Worldwide. While they never sought out these opportunities, they are grateful to turn something so tragic into a force for good. “Throughout this whole process it’s been easy to see God at work in our whole story,” says Rachel.

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