2 Year Old Burned to Death Inside Hot Car

Parent Cafe
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<p><a href=“http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/E22AB9B881B6089F8625734000666C23?OpenDocument[/url]”>http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/E22AB9B881B6089F8625734000666C23?OpenDocument&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Null’s research shows that about two-fifths of deaths of children in hot vehicles occur when the child is accidentally forgotten by a caregiver.</p>

<p>St. Louis police are investigating the death of a 7-month-old baby apparently left in the heat of a parked car at Washington University medical school today.</p>

<p>The baby girl’s mother is a pediatrician, and her father is a medical researcher.</p>

<p>Police withheld their identity for now. They believe that the parents became confused about which one had the child.</p>

<p>Passers-by saw the baby in the car, on a lot in the 4500 block of Clayton Avenue. They broke a window with a rock and tried to revive the baby.</p>

<p>Authorities say the man and woman work at the medical school campus at different times. She contacted her husband and asked him to meet her and park her car; he did so, but thought she had already dropped their child off at the on-campus daycare facility. She had not and thought he would take the child to daycare.</p>

<p>It wasn’t immediately clear how long the child had been in the car. Health officials say children and pets can become seriously ill or die if left in an unattended vehicle, even for a very short time. </p>

<p>Jan Null, adjunct professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University, said the death was the 22nd in the U.S. this year involving a child left in a hot vehicle. Null, who performs research into how hot a vehicle gets and tracks child deaths in hot vehicles, said it was the first such case in Missouri this year but the 12th in the state since 1998.</p>

<p>Null said that if the outside temperature was 95 degrees, the temperature inside the car would have exceeded 140 degrees.</p>

<p>“That’s a lethal temperature for an infant or small child,” Null said. “Their body temperatures increase three to five times faster than ours would.”</p>

<p>Null’s research shows that about two-fifths of deaths of children in hot vehicles occur when the child is accidentally forgotten by a caregiver. About a quarter of the cases involve children playing in cars. About 20 percent are children intentionally left in cars.</p>

<p>“The 5-minute trip to the bank that ends up taking a half-hour can be deadly,” Null said. “Children should never be left unattended in vehicles. Period.”</p>

<p>Also today, a 2-year-old child was found dead in a car with the windows rolled up at a middle school in Union Township, Ohio, near Cincinnati, according to the Cincinnati</p>

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<p>to highlight</p>

<p>to hgihlight:</p>

<p>Null’s research shows that about two-fifths of deaths of children in hot vehicles occur when the child is accidentally forgotten by a caregiver. About a quarter of the cases involve children playing in cars. About 20 percent are children intentionally left in cars."</p>

<p>equal numbers “forget” as do it on purpose</p>

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<p>I believe that she should do something to make others more aware of careless errors and to promote vigilance when dealing with your children but that should be her own personal decision. The government should not mandate it. It would somehow cheapen her effort and I don’t feel comfortable with the government having that much lee-way with my family or my life. Community pressure is one thing and I believe it’s healthy to an an extent but court mandated action is something else altogether. </p>

<p>Having said this, if a choice between her receiving prison time or community service specifically geared towards improving the odds of this not happening again were presented the latter would be the best option.</p>

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<p>“I am not saying prison, but there needs to be SOMETHING…her pain is nothing compared to what her baby went through”</p>

<p>As a mother, you must know how ridiculous this statement is. Her pain will last for the rest of her life.</p>

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<p>Have to agree with baseballmom, anudduhmom, let’s not start the SAHM debate. And I say that as a SAHM who drives a Range Rover, and whose kids have been the #1 priority since the day each was born. Do you honestly believe that people who drive expensive cars are inferior in their mothering skills or love for their children? Please tell me that you had a brain cramp with that thought.</p>

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<p>Child Passenger Safety Tips</p>

<p>Put your briefcase in the back seat next to your child. A missing briefcase may interrupt your routine enough to send you straight back to your car to find the briefcase and your baby.
Put your cell phone in the back seat. .
Put your lunch box in the back seat.
Put a stuffed animal in the car seat when your child is not in it, when you do put your child in the car seat, take the stuffed animal and place it on the passenger seat next to you. When you see the stuffed animal, you’ll know your child is still in the back seat.
Write “baby” on a sticky note and place it on your dash.</p>

<p>I have been looking up child car deaths, and it happens all over the country, because parents, often 2 of them forget about their babies, and you call me ridiculous</p>

<p>this is more common than any one here would care to admit</p>

<p>guess kids can just keep dying because parents forget about them and don’t even bother talking to each other about them</p>

<p>sad sad sad indeed</p>

<p>I thought YOU took care of our baby is not the same as I thought you were supposed to pick up the milk</p>

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<p>yet another one who forgot her baby</p>

<p>OR BABY’S CAR DEATH</p>

<p>08/27/07 12:20 PDT
NAPA (BCN)</p>

<p>The Napa County district attorney’s office has filed an involuntary manslaughter charge against an Angwin mother whose 10-month-old daughter died in the back of her locked car.</p>

<p>Haley Sheri Wesley, 27, apparently forgot her daughter Maddison was in the back seat of her Honda on May 18 when she went to work, the Napa County Sheriff’s Department said. She normally took the infant to childcare on Fridays but decided to first show her only child to former co-workers in Napa that day, Capt. John Robertson said.</p>

<p>When she realized she was running late for work, Wesley drove to her job at Pacific Union College in Anguin, forgetting her daughter was in the car. She didn’t discover the infant until she returned home around 3 p.m. when she left to drive to the childcare center, the sheriff’s department said. She tried to revive her but the baby was declared dead at St. Helena Hospital.</p>

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<p>and another</p>

<p>Associated Press - August 13, 2007 7:15 PM ET</p>

<p>ARCADE, N.Y. (AP) - A woman who left her 5-month-old son in a hot car for nine hours won’t be charged in the baby’s death.</p>

<p>Wyoming County District Attorney Gerald Stout says he decided not to charge 32-year-old Lynn Brol after a comprehensive investigation by Arcade Police and his office.</p>

<p>Nearly two weeks ago, Brol left her Franklinville home with her infant son in the back seat of her car, but forgot to drop him off at day care when she went to work.</p>

<p>When she left work, she found the baby dead in his car seat and called 911.</p>

<p>The temperature that day was in the low 90s with high humidity.</p>

<p>Brayden was the 19th child to die in a hot car this summer in the U.S. and the first in New York state.</p>

<p>The number of such deaths has risen dramatically since the mid-1990s, totaling around 340 in the past 10 years.</p>

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<p>Police in Ocean Springs, Mississippi are investigating the death of a nine-month old girl after she was left in an SUV.
Officers say Thursday, the father of the child was supposed to drop her off at daycare, but forgot and went on to work…
Investigators say the child was left inside the vehicle for at least seven hours.
When rescue crews arrived to get her out, the little girl was unresponsive.
The news of the tragedy has been the talk of the city.
“My heart goes out to them and I’ll say a prayer for them that they’ll be able to cope with this,” said Helen Pendas of Ocean Springs.
“Even if he’s not used to be the one that drop off the child, write a note and stick it on your steering wheel if you have to but for God sake!,” said Lei Small of Ocean Springs.
The father of the child has not been charged.
Ocean Springs Police say they will turn over their findings to a grand jury sometime next month.
<a href=“http://wkrg.com/news/article/baby_left_in_car/4886/[/url]”>http://wkrg.com/news/article/baby_left_in_car/4886/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Nobody is arguing that it isn’t tragic, and common. I don’t understand your point. And yes, I do believe it is ridiculous to downplay the suffering that these parents are feeling. I can’t believe people could lack compassion like this. Yes, this woman made a horrible mistake, and she will live with it every moment of the rest of her life. Let her deal with her own demons.</p>

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<p>my point is that ignoring it is not enough- </p>

<p>people are soooo busy they forget their child? and the child dies a lonely, horrid, painful, gruesome death</p>

<p>lack of compassion because mom and dad are so “busy” they don’t even talk to each other our the sitter to see how their baby is</p>

<p>lack of compassion because priorities are so skewed that the child is forgotten for hours and hours and hours while they are dying a slow and very painful death</p>

<p>lack of compassion because of messed up communication between parents about their own children that results in death</p>

<p>lack of compassion because seems if you are white and middle class, you walk away without so much as community service </p>

<p>I accidentaly hit a car and I pay with something- but I forget my child and they die and I have no one to answer to but myself and that is supposed to just be enough</p>

<p>Why should it be common, explain that to me</p>

<p>WHy is it okay for parents to be so busy and lack even basic communication skills and focus that their children die?</p>

<p>Yes, the incompetent mother is living in hell right now, and this common “mistake” will keep occuring until one of those grieving parents steps up and says THINK ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN AFTER YOUR JOB< YOUR CAR< YOUR DONUTS</p>

<p>Call your babysitter once a day to see that all is okay
Call your spouse to make sure you are on the same page</p>

<p>Is that too much to ask?</p>

<p>Guess it is</p>

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<p>There was a PSA on the radio the other day about boating safety, the speaker was driving his boat, had an “accident”, and his friend was mangled for life</p>

<p>A father spoke about his sons deaths for not wearing life jackets</p>

<p>Smokers talk about their cancer</p>

<p>And these parents should talk about being so busy they let their children die</p>

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<p>I appreciate the compassion many posters display toward this mother. Self-righteousness is never appropriate or attractive; however, I don’t think that’s what at issue here. </p>

<p>Raising a child is a huge responsibility, but children are so helpless that we do hold parents to some standards in the care of their children. Negligence as well as abuse are criminal offenses. No matter how sorry we are for this mother (and I am; I certainly bear her no ill will and regret her suffering) that doesn’t change the fact that this level of neglect is a criminal offense and should be prosecuted. Society must make clear what is and what isn’t acceptable. </p>

<p>Many wife abusers cannot control their behavior; many rapists cannot either. We may feel sorry for them, but they should be prosecuted.</p>

<p>Perhaps compassion should be shown at sentencing hearing but not at this point in the process. Society should advocate for the child who had a right to expect a standard of care, not the mother, no matter how much compassion we feel for her.</p>

<p>I don’t think I am vengeful or lack compassion; I think this is entirely beside the point. We don’t decide the criminality of actions based on our feelings for the perpetrator or whether or not we can empathize which the conditions that led to the crime, in this case neglect. There are societies that feel a man is justified in killing an adulterous wife. The other men empathize with this reaction and refuse to prosecute him. </p>

<p>I also think others in this woman’s life missed the boat. A history of leaving a young child unattended in a car is a red flag. Someone should have called Child Protective Services. These calls are anonymous.</p>

<p>Edit: What would our reaction be someone else’s child had died? I’m sure we would think this woman should be prosecuted. She has no more right to neglect her own child than another woman’s. And doesn’t her own child deserve the same societal protections as another woman’s? What’s at issue here is the result, not the intent. That’s what makes this a crime.</p>

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<p>Forgetfulness, even when it results in horrible tragedies like this one, cannot be compared to rape or abuse.</p>

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<p>Parents in other places are charged with doing the exact same thing, laws very state to state</p>

<p>I feel compassion because a child is dead</p>

<p>I just can’t imagine not thinking once about my child all day long, it is just no in my makeup, to not have their faces flash through my mind</p>

<p>When my Ds were in school, I thought about their days, when they were with my friends and their little friends, I thought about what they were doing</p>

<p>And when I thought about them, I remember, oh yeah, I need milk, or oh yeah, make that appointment, their lives were so emeshed with my life and thoughts all day long whether they were in my line of site or not</p>

<p>As someone pointed out, who feels more understanding of this tragedy than I do, this is common</p>

<p>Why should it be common? THese people, most of which looking at the reports in the paper, are upper middle class people who are forgetting, who lead generally comfortable lives relatively speaking, do they not think of their children during their busy days?</p>

<p>Are they so distracted, are they so much more stressed then the average folks? Are they so busy they don’t talk to each other about the children in their lives? </p>

<p>My H and I talk every morning about our plans for the day, who is doing what, etc</p>

<p>And we talk again later</p>

<p>Do couples not talk to each other? Do they not confirm who is doing what? Are people incapable of changing a routine? </p>

<p>I understand people both working, that is not the point here</p>

<p>THe point is parents not talking to each other, everyone assuming a whole lot of stuff about a helpless baby, and noone checking in, because heaven forbid we checked in with each other</p>

<p>I don’t say send mom to prison, but some public discourse on this common problem needs to happen</p>

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<p>and what a light and airy term “forgetfulness” is</p>

<p>forgetful forgetful forgetful- yep that makes it all okay</p>

<p>guess if you want to kill your child, you can forget them in a car…yep…its an acceptable thing these days…you can just say,oppsy, forget all about them…who can doubt that?</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-29-lefttodie_N.htm[/url]”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-29-lefttodie_N.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>so if you say you forgot your child while you got the massage you wouldn’t get 20 years in prison…got it</p>

<p>I forgot to pay my taxes
I forgot to pay the rent
I forgot to feed my dogs
I forgot I forgot I forgot</p>

<p>THat is the new defense these days- don’t recall, I forgot, we didn’t communicate with each other</p>

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<p>It was a horrible mistake. I don’t think I’ve used light language once. But that’s what it was, a mistake. Yes, a tragic one, nobody is downplaying that, but comparing it to rape or murder is ludicrous. And no, someone should not get 20 years in prison for a mistake that will already haunt them for the rest of their life, certainly not when it will do no good to society. You’re just out for revenge, and it’s nasty. </p>

<p>Nobody said killing your child was “acceptable”, you aren’t being reasonable. Please actually read what I am saying.</p>

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<p>There seems to be some implicatoin that only parents who work and drive their babies to daycare kill their kids through negligence or “forgetfulness”. We see many child abuse cases where I work. If you cannot imagine parents who don’t “think about their child” all day, you will have an even harder time imaging the parents who cut their kids, burn their kids, break their arms, shake them to death, leave them alone in apartments while they go out to get high, etc. But, if you search on pediatric deaths you will find that many kids are killed at home with stay at home Moms or in the presence of Mom or Dad. Far greater numbers of children die at home from drowning in the pool, from choking, from accidental firearm use, and fires (no batteries in the smoke alarm). They also die in greater numbers in motor vehicle accidents (where Mom or DAd has often been drinking). </p>

<p>This case is a horrible tragedy and the number of these deaths clearly indicates that it is a problem that should be brought to everyone’s attention because it is SO preventable. But it would be a mistake to think that only working parents who drive expensive cars make this kind of mistake or are negligent or are guilty of a rare but tragic distraction or memory lapse.</p>

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<p>unregistered: That is not correct. Neglect is coequal with abuse in the case of minor children. I worked for the Department of Social Services in the Child Protective Department and worked on many cases like this. Neglect is a crime no different from abuse or rape. Because minor children are so dependent (in this case could not get out of the car herself) neglect is as criminal as abuse. I don’t know what the county prosecutors will do, but a case could be made for negligent homicide (which also applies to adults by the way.)</p>

<p>I appeared before many judges, trained judges and submitted wording used in state and Federal legislation around victim rights so this is a bit an area of expertise.</p>

<p>Rileydog: I agree that the career issue plays no part in this case. There are many neglectful moms who don’t work. Some may be invoking this issue, but I certainly am not. I have always been a working mom except for the four years when my kids were very young. I no longer work for DSS, but I have coordinated child rearing with gainful employment. In my case working was certainly not an ego trip; it was a necessity. However, I am glad I worked.<br>
The safety and well-being of my children was certainly always my primary concern, just as I know have extra to work to pay their tuitions.</p>

<p>Unregistered: Words like ludicrous bring a different tone into a debate. You may feel strongly about your position, but I am not speaking from a personal bias but from the experience of a trained professional. “Mistakes” can be crimes.</p>