She cared enough about the sick pet, but the baby got left behind. A suburban Atlanta mom left her 2-month-old baby boy in her sweltering SUV as she took her pet to the vet last Thursday, police said. She did, however, take her other two kids inside the office with her.
A passerby called cops after spotting the sweating child, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He had been in the Ford Expedition for about 40 minutes, with the windows rolled up, authorities said. The temperature inside was estimated at 90 degrees.
The baby was treated at a hospital and released into the care of other relatives. His mother, 38-year-old Dawn Myers, was arrested and charged with cruelty to children. It was not reported what type of pet she took to the vet’s office and that animal’s condition.
A Louisiana mom was asleep when her two young children got into her unlocked car, parked in front of the family home. The 3-year-old got out, but then inadvertently locked the doors with his 2-year-old brother still inside, police said.
The toddler later died on Thursday. His mom, Hollie Ann Simon, 25, of Jennings, La., has been charged with negligent homicide, the American Press reported. Other kids in the household — ages 7, 5 and 3 — told police that they had tried to wake up Simon. Evenutally, they said, the toddler quit crying and “went to sleep,” Detective Jean Cooley told the newspaper. A family member who stopped by the house to check on the kids discovered the toddler.
Simon had fallen asleep shortly after getting home from work at 6:30 a.m. It was unclear how long the child had been in the car. The high temperature that day was 91 degrees.
What’s worse — driving home drunk or asking your 11-year-old kid to be the designated driver? Police say that Eusebio Augilar asked his son to drive them back home from a trip to the grocery store in Las Vegas on Thursday night.
Cops stopped the car after it made an abrupt turn into a dirt lot. Aguilar was charged with child endangerment. But Jonathan is defending his father. The boy told KTNV TV News that he and his dad were just having a driving lesson. “I just pretended I was driving,” he said. “I was holding the steering wheel, and he just moved his hands and my hands.”
Jonathan doesn’t understand why his father was arrested: “I want my dad to get out of jail.”
Three-month-old Elle Runnion was left in a hot car for more than seven hours on Thursday in Kansas, where temperatures reached into the 90s. Her parents had accidently forgotten about her when they parked outside a business, the Salina Journal reported. Additional details were unavailable.
At least one child has died of hyperthermia or heat stroke each week since June.
Daniel Slutsky became the second child this week to die in a hot vehicle after being accidently left behind by a day care worker.
Daniel, 2, was forgotten for 6 and a half hours in a car with the windows rolled up outside a daycare center in suburban Philadelphia. Rimma Shuartsman, the operator of Fairy Tales Day Care and also his neighbor, had been taking the boy to the facility three times a week since September, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. But on Wednesday morning, she apparently forgot to take him out of his car seat.
Daniel died of hyperthermia. The high temperature was only 83 degrees, but that’s enough to turn a locked car into an oven. Police are investigating and haven’t made a decision on whether to charge Shuartsman.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible for one week to pass this summer without a child dying of heat exhaustion or hyperthermia in a hot car.
A 23-month-old girl was left strapped in her car seat in front of her family’s home in suburban Baltimore for more than eight hours on Saturday. Police said a change of routine caused the parents to forget about the child, but didn’t specify details, the Baltimore Sun reported. The parents, who were not publicly identified, will not be charged in the incident, police said.
The 11-month-old boy was left in a hot car in a supermarket parking lot as temperatures reached 100 degrees on Saturday, police said. An employee at the HEB supermarket in Killeen, Tex., spotted the child and called 911. Firefighters broke open a car window to rescue the baby, who looked dazed from the heat, KXXV TV News reported.
The child had been left in the car for at least 17 minutes, authorities said. The mother, Sarah Lowelle Traylor, was arrested and charged with child abandonment.
Senior firefighter Robert Arrendo told KXXV that young children are more at risk to hyperthermia because they “have a smaller amount of fluid that their body can hold, so them sweating just like we would would cause them going into a type of shock.”
Two-year-old Elise Nelms unbuckled herself out of her booster seat and opened the sliding door of the minivan being driven by her grandmother. She then fell out and was run over by a rear tire, police said.
Elise died a week after the June 17 accident, when she was taken off life support, the Peoria Journal Star in Illionis reported. She had multiple injuries to her head and chest.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that kids should not be in booster seats until they are at least four years old. Younger children should be in a car safety seat with a five-point harness.
The babysitter had taken other kids into a store with her on Wednesday, but forgot about the 2-year-old boy in her truck. Two hours later, Shantel Wilcher returned and apparently discovered little Bernard Davis unconscious, police said. He was later pronounced dead of hyperthermia. The high temperature in Jacksonville, Fla., was about 90 degrees.
Bernard’s family told reporters that they want Wilcher, 38, charged with murder. So far, police have only charged her with running a daycare without a license, a misdemeanor, the Florida Times-Union reported. Police said the investigation is continuing.
Wilcher had been caring for Bernard and his 3-year-old brother for the past four months, while their mother attended school. On Wednesday, Wilcher had taken Bernard’s brother and her two teenagers into the store with her.
The two-year-old girl was being cared for her grandparents on Saturday while her father was at work. April Knight and two other kids had been out and had returned to the grandparents’ home in Lexington, Ky., the Herald-Leader reported.
The grandparents took one of the girls, 12, into the home to deal with “an issue,” and apparently thought the other older child would take care of the toddler. She did not. About two hours later, April was found dead, still strapped to her car seat, police said. The high temperature on Saturday was 89 degrees.
So far this summer, at least one child a week has died in a similar situation.