Lindlar – “That was the darkest day of my life,” recalls Britta Klein of Lindlar-Unterbüschem. She is referring to October 4, 2005, a golden autumn day. Until the unimaginable happened: To keep her then ten-week-old daughter Johanna from being alone in the apartment, Britta Klein took her down to the basement. She stumbled on the stairs, the baby slipped from her arms, tumbled down several steps, and hit her head against a wall. That brief moment changed the family’s life forever.
For weeks, the infant fought for her life; during a surgery lasting several hours, a large portion of the affected left hemisphere of her brain had to be removed. Weeks and months of anxiety followed, as the family wondered how far Johanna would be able to recover—an incredible strain on the family, which included not only Johanna but also Jonas, who was three years old at the time.
