Hospital experts warn of dangers, offer tips to prevent hot car deaths

In the wake of Wednesday’s heat-related death at a Procter and Gamble facility in Mason, experts at Dayton Children’s Hospital are reminding parents of the dangers of leaving a child in a car, even if it’s only for a matter of moments.

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Jessica Saunders, the Director of the Center for Child Health and Wellness at Dayton Children’s Hospital said a child is not able to regulate their body temperatures the way adults can, making it even more dangerous when a child is left in a hot car.

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“In about 10 minutes, a car can heat up about 19 degrees, then it's exponential at that point. So really quite quickly a car can heat up,” Saunders said.

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“A child's body temperature heats up three to five times faster than an adult's. So that's the big challenge is, you know an adult we can regulate our temperature, [but] a young child can't so it's even more dangerous for children in these hot cars."

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Saunders said when a child’s body temperature reaches 107 degrees, the body starts to shut down and will cause damage to cells. She said even when its rather comfortable outside, temperatures can reach dangerous levels very quickly.

“It doesn’t matter how hot it outside, that car is still going to heat up. So even on a 70 degree day, it’s something we all need to be vigilant about to never leave a child in a car because that car is going to heat up in the sun,” Saunders said.

Saunders said many times these accidental deaths are caused by changes in the adult’s routine and suggested a few tips to help parents prevent leaving their child in a hot car by mistake:

• Put something you wouldn't leave the car without, such as a cell phone or purse, in the back seat of the car with the child.
• Place a stuffed animal in the front seat of the car, and switch the animal to the back seat when you take the child out of the car

Saunders said Wednesday’s hot car death is the 34th death in the United States in 2017, compared to 39 in 2016. There have been 734 total hot car deaths in the U.S. since the statistic started being recorded.

“As a community we need to make sure we wrap our arms around parents who are experiencing a tragedy, especially as we expect [Wednesday’s death] was an accident,” Saunders said.