Could a teddy bear help prevent tragedy?

It’s not something we hear about very much in the UK but in hotter countries like the USA for instance, it  happens more often than anyone would like to believe and is something that could happen here in the UK too.  That is infants and small children dying from heat stroke when left in a car.  Leaving a child in a hot car can so easily result in tragedy.  But parents who think it could never happen to them are only putting themselves at risk.  KidsAndCars.org is a national non profit organisation that advocates for child and automotive safety.

42 children died in this way last year in the USA and that is 42 too many!

A car is like an oven

As the temperature rises in July and August, so does the risk of heat stroke — also known as hypothermia — among children. Leaving a child in a hot car is like leaving a child in an oven, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Surprisingly, it can take as little as 10 minutes for a child locked inside a car to die of heat stroke.  When the outside temperature is 80 degrees the car soon becomes like a greenhouse with the interior temperature reaching 130 degrees. In such a hot car, body temperature can rise as high as 106 degrees, leading to heat stroke, dehydration, seizures and damage to the brain and other vital organs.

These tragic deaths are not as a result of neglectful parents, but as a result of parents not understanding the risks and making an error in judgement.

An article By Hiran Ratnayake and reported in The News Journal on July 20 2009 tells a very sad story.

Andrea Boe of Grand Forks, USA had a change in her usual schedule that led to her daughter, Kate Lola, dying of heat stroke.

Andrea worked full time and had two children in day care.   Usually she drove both children to day care but on the fateful day, her eldest child stayed at home with her father. Andrea carried Kate Lola out to her minivan and as soon as she placed her in the back seat, she was sound asleep,” She then drove to work, thinking about all the things she had to get done at work and home.  She somehow went into ‘autopilot’ and arrived at work without dropping Kate off at day care. She worked the entire day without ever going back out to her car. In her mind, she had dropped Kate off at day care.

When Andrea returned to her minivan at the end of her workday, she didn’t even notice her daughter in the back seat. Instead, she drove to the day care to pick her up. Only then did the horrifying realisation hit her that Kate Lola was still in the minivan. Efforts to resuscitate the little girl failed.  Though she knows it was an innocent mistake, she will never get over the guilt and regret.

Kate Lola died because her mother forgot she was in the car but other deaths were caused because parents thought their children would be ok in the car for 10 minutes or so.  KidsAndCars.org have some helpful advice for parents to avoid this tragedy happening to them.

Never leave children alone in a car, not even for a minute.

Keep a large teddy bear in your child’s car seat when it’s not occupied. When the child is placed in the seat, put the teddy bear in the front passenger seat. It’s a visual reminder that anytime the teddy bear is up front you know your child is in the back.

For further advice or to ready the full story go to http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20090720/LIFESTYLE/907200327