DADvocate

Researching my rather tongue-in-cheek deer post, I came across this story of a two year old toddler that died from after being left in an SUV. How in God's name can parents keep doing this? I feel nauseous.



The parent was apparently no uneducated, uninformed dummy. The car was a Mercedes SUV.

Records showed that the vehicle where the girl was found is registered to the school's assistant principal, Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby.

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According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, temperatures inside a car sitting in the sun can climb from 78 degrees to 100 degrees in as short a time as three minutes.

After six to eight minutes, the temperature inside the car can reach 125 degrees, and heatstroke occurs when the body's temperature reaches 104 degrees.

Temperatures reached near 100 degrees in many portions of the Cincinnati area Thursday afternoon.

This happened in a suburb of Cincinati. I work in Cincinnati and checked the temperatures at the airport several times today. The temperature at the airport reached 102^o at 7:53 PM. You don't not notice heat like this.

When I left work today, the center console burned my forearm. I could hardly touch the steering wheel and my air conditioner barely kept the car cool while driving at cruising speed.

I won't leave my 11 year old daughter in a car by herself or with other girls her age. I'm too afraid some pervert might try something. I will leave my extra large 14 year old son in the car when I go into the local grocery but not in unfamiliar places.

I'll never understand how someone can leave a baby or toddler to die in the heat.

In a matter of 10 minutes, the temperature inside the car could have climbed close to 120 degrees. Jan Null, an adjunct professor of Meteorology at the San Francisco University ,said the car’s temperature could have been in excess of 145 degrees and that objects in direct sunlight would have been much hotter.

Null, who tracks instances of children being left in hot vehicles, said this death was the 23rd such fatality involving a child in a vehicle this year and the first for Ohio.

Another child died in hot vehicle today in St. Louis.

In all likely hood this tragic lost is devastating to the parent, as it well should be. I have little sympathy except for the child that suffered a torturous death. If you don't want to exert the extra effort that having a child requires, don't have a child.

UPDATE: From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

School officials declined to comment on why the girl, Cecilia Slaby, might have been left in her mother's Mercedes. Her mother, Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, is the school's assistant principal.

Union Township police said the girl was strapped in a car seat in the rear of the vehicle for several hours before she was noticed.

Calls from people who spotted Cecilia began flooding the Union Township Police Department around 3:14 p.m., Lt. Scott Gaviglia said.

When officers arrived in the parking lot of the school, at 4342 Glen Este Withamsville Road, they found the child.

None of the windows was left down, Gaviglia said.

From what I heard on the 11:00 PM News, the woman simply forgot the child was in her car and went into work leaving the child behind. I wonder why she was so distracted or whatever that she forgot her child. I occasionally forget my umbrella but it is of much less importance. I can't help but wonder is she was engaged in a cellphone conversation or simply too rushed.

UPDATE2: An anonymous commenter suggested, "It might be wise to show a little compassion. You may need it some day." Perhaps, I should be a little more compassionate towards the mother, but I find it hard. If I'm compassionate because I might need it some day, I'm acting out of selfish motives. Do I want the mother to go to jail? No. If it was someone else's child, probably.

As well as this child dying, a baby in St. Louis died in the same manner. The parents were doctor and a medical researcher at the same hospital.

The child had been in the car for three hours, Gieseke said. It's believed the mother left the child in the back seat of the father's car, but that the father thought the mother had taken the child.

All these parents are college educated professionals. Surely, they were well informed enough to know the dangers. But, sometimes we let our immediate worries drowned out the bigger picture.

Still, I can only imagine the pain, emotional trauma and suffering the babies endured before dying. Symptoms of heatstroke

HEATSTROKE SYMPTOMS
An abrupt onset is sometimes preceded by prodromal headache, vertigo, nausea and fatigue, small pupils and very high fever. The victim may become extremely disoriented or unconsciousness with possible convulsions. Sweating is usually but not always decreased, the skin is hot, flushed, and usually dry (sweating has ceased). The pulse rate may be strong, increase rapidly and may reach 160bpm.

Respirations usually increase, but blood pressure is seldom affected. Disorientation may briefly precede unconsciousness or convulsions. The temperature climbs rapidly to 41°C and the patient feels as if they are burning up. Circulatory collapse may precede death, after hours of extreme hyperpyrexia, survivors are likely to have permanent brain damage

I can envision the babies crying in terror, the older toddler probably struggled mightily to escape from the car seat. Neither would quit until exhaustion and the effects of the heat stopped them.

Yes, the parents deserve some compassion but I really don't know how much. This reminds me of this story.

A mother went to the Emperor Napoleon to ask for mercy for her son.
He had committed some breach of the French law.
The emperor replied, “Madam, this is the second time the boy has offended.
“Justice requires that he should die.”
She answered, “I did not come to ask for justice, I beg for mercy.”
He answered, “He does not deserve mercy.”
“Sire,” she said, “It would not be mercy if he deserved it. I ask for mercy.”
When she put it that way, the emperor replied, “Well then, I will have mercy.”

These incidents are much like many others in that we get in too much of a hurry or get distracted by something of minor significance. Seat belts aren't worn, we drive too fast, don't completely stop at an intersection, etc. And, then comes the one time where it all goes wrong.

Sometimes our lives are defined by a single moment no matter what else we've done. I do hope the parents of these children can go forward in the future and make the world a little better place to live. Even more, I hope that we parents keep our children close enough in mind to avoid such mistakes.

I just find it extremely sad and avoidable.