The worst can happen to the best of parents

You could say it’s the worst that could happen.

But there are really no words to describe the horror and anguish in discovering that your precious baby or toddler was forgotten — left in a locked car to die a horrible death from heat stroke.

You might think it’s a rare occurrence, and that’s true to some degree — it happens about 37 times a year in the U.S. (which amounts to an average of one death every nine days).

Of course, even one is one too many.

You also might think it’s something that you would never do. Those moms and dads must be terrible parents who don’t care about their children!

But for the most part, nothing could be further from the truth.

As experts around the country agree, this horrific lapse of memory could happen to even the best of parents.

Fortunately, there are some very effective and simple steps you can take to make sure that this unspeakable tragedy never, ever happens to you.

Fatal distraction

It doesn’t seem to matter who you are or what you do… under the right circumstances, it’s possible for anyone to suffer a tragic slip of memory.

Little Remington Engler was just shy of her second birthday when she died of hyperthermia (heat stroke) after her mom Nicole forgot that her daughter was strapped in a car seat.

Chase Harrison was left behind in a locked car during a sweltering July day for close to nine hours while his dad Miles was at work. The 21-month-old boy died a terrible death, as the temperature soared to unbearable extremes inside the vehicle.

Clare Engholm was only 7 months old when her mom Kari forgot she was in the back of the family’s minivan, left behind to die on a scorching summer day.

 

Those are just three examples of loving, caring parents whose babies died an indescribably horrible death after being accidentally left inside a vehicle.

These parents are police officers, social workers, accountants, members of the clergy… even a pediatrician. Remington’s mom Nicole is a nurse practitioner. Little Clare’s mother Kari is the CEO of a hospital.

So how could something like this happen?

Typically, that terrible day brews into the perfect storm of what experts call “fatal distraction.” It can happen due to stress, lack of sleep, phone calls on the way to work, and most often, a change in routine where the parent who makes such a devastating mistake is not the one who typically drops off the baby or tot at daycare or with the sitter.

Janette Fennell, who runs the nonprofit “Kids and Cars,” calls these tragedies “failures of memory, not of love.” These are the kinds of parents “who buy baby locks and safety gates,” she says.

And while there are all sorts of alarms and notification your car gives you if you forget to buckle your seat belt or if the gas cap is loose, there’s no warning system as of yet — despite various legislative efforts calling on car manufacturers to install some type of one.

In fact, it was the introduction of airbags in vehicles – which can be deadly for kids in the front seat – that caused car seats to be typically placed in the back, with infant seats usually facing the rear — making the baby practically invisible from the driver’s side.

And it doesn’t have to be sweltering, as it is in many areas of the country right now. Kids have suffered fatal heatstroke in cars even with outside temperatures as low as 60 degrees.

Children overheat up to five times faster than adults. Combine that with the fact that a car can quickly become an oven – reaching 125 degrees in just minutes — and it doesn’t take long for tragedy to strike.

Considering the terrible consequences, putting one of these steps from Kids and Cars into action is something anyone who’s taking a child in their car should be doing, even if you firmly believe it could never happen to you.

#1: Place something you know that you’ll need – your phone, handbag, or briefcase – in the back by the baby seat so that you’ll absolutely have to look there before you leave the car. One expert started a campaign called “Never Left” three years ago, calling for parents and caregivers to place their left shoe in the back seat.

#2: Place a large stuffed toy in the front passenger seat whenever your child or grandchild is buckled up in the rear.

#3: The Kids and Cars motto is “Look before you lock.” If everyone made it a point to always open the back door and check their rear seats before locking up, there’s no doubt that lives would be saved.

“Hell itself: NP fatally leaves her child in hot car, forgive?” ZDoggMD, July 12, 2018, Medpage Today, medpagetoday.com