Posted on 06/29/2006 8:59:40 AM PDT by charming_harmonica
A 5-month-old baby died in a minivan Wednesday after the mother apparently forgot to drop the child off at day care.
The tragedy was discovered about 5:30 p.m. outside the Wonder Years 2 day care. The baby's mother stopped at the day care after work to pick up the child and was told by staff that the baby had not been dropped off. She realized then that the baby had been in her minivan all day.
"The mother had forgotten to drop off the child at day care in the morning," said Curt Kreun, owner of Wonder Years 2. "She actually came in the building to pick up the child and then realized what had happened."
The child was in a car seat in the back of the vehicle, according to Sgt. Jeff Burgess of the Grand Forks Police Department. A Wonder Years 2 staff member made the 911 call, according to Kreun.
Staff members had taken the baby out of the van and started CPR before the ambulance arrived. Kreun said he reached the scene about 6 p.m. and emergency personnel already had gotten the word from Altru to cease resuscitation.
"The child had probably passed away a while before she got to the day care," Kreun said.
Kreun, who has been in the child care business for years, said near-tragedies happen all too often.
"I know people who have gotten to work and realized they forgot to drop off their kids and had to go back."
Kreun said it would have been impossible for passersby to see the baby in the van, which had tinted windows.
"I walked around that van about 14 times after they left, and you would not have been able to see in there," he said.
The incident is under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Bureau, but police told Kreun they didn't expect charges to be filed.
"They're looking at it as a tragic accident," he said. "This is by far the most devastating thing I've had to witness."
"There are no arrests being made tonight," said Burgess. "I can tell you that."
The cause of death had not yet been confirmed Wednesday night, but a likely cause of death in cases where children are left in hot vehicles is hyperthermia.
The temperature in a parked car rises very rapidly, even when the windows are left open a crack. Studies show that the temperature can rise as much as 50 degrees in an hour.
Wednesday's high was 79 degrees, so the temperature in the van easily could have exceeded 100 degrees.
I hope nothing bad ever happens to you. It would change your world-view so fast it would make you dizzy.
You two have really excellent ideas. I strongly urge you to develop them further than just talking about them here. If nothing else, at least submit the ideas to auto and/or baby seat manufacturers.
Not the family of James Baker, nor the famous golfer's family either.
Pure ignorance, deliberate neglect, right?
Although I don't mean to trample on you religious beliefs, such sentiments really get to me. If Jesus' arms are so loving, why didn't He save the child? Would have been so easy. No need for miracles or anything fancy. Plant a reminder in the mom's mind before she got to work. Have the child start wailing just as mom pulls into the company parking lot. Something simple like that.
I know. I know. Free will. Applies to adults, but not to helpless 5-month-olds. So the only conclusion I come to is that either He doesn't give a dang, or He wanted the kid to die, or He doesn't exist. (Personally, I lean toward the He doesn't give a dang scenario.)
Bad things HAVE happened to me, usually because of bad choices I made. How I've chosen to react to those consequences, however, always has determined the outcome.
Even if I HAD made a bad choice resulting in getting pregnant outside of marriage, for instance, I could have reacted to the consequnce of a bad choice by making a choice to give the child up for adoption.
If I get the door of a brand new car dinged in a parking lot or if I die in a plane crash, I CHOSE to park where I did and I CHOSE to get on that plane.
And if you ever have to get a job, it will be your own fault.
Because newer cars had airbags that were too powerful, and they told folks NOT to put car seats in the front. Thankfully, mine were all babies before air bags on the passenger side were typical. I always had them in the front passenger seat so that I could talk to them and keep them occupied. If they can see you, and 'chat' with you, they are much happier, and you're a much less distracted driver since you don't have to be worrying about them in the back seat.
Amen.
Turning your head for a minute is very different, and you know it.
There's so many ways in which we can lose our children in a second. I certainly wasn't a perfect parent. But I just think that leaving a baby in the car is another category altogether.
Then why did he create us in the first place if He was going to live our lives for us? I'm not going to get into a theological discussion here, but I hear this type of argument a lot. It applies to 5-month-olds because they are dependent on adults and all of us live together in society. I can understand the question, though. Life--living it and understanding it--is not easy.
Of course she should have, and there's nobody on this earth who knows and feels that more devastatedly than she does now and for the rest of her life.
Still, she didn't do it intentionally.
It was a tragic mistake for which she shouldn't be judged.
What are you talking about? I DO work, but we have no more kids at home.
"It's not only about the car. It's about turning your head for a moment, or being distracted, and the child lets go of your hand in the parking lot. Or reaches for the stove, or a million other things where you just know that someone above was looking out for you."
I'd guess that just about everybody here knows somebody who has looked away at the wrong instant and a child has been killed or injured. In a nearby county an 8-year-old girl was playing near a flooded culvert when she was sucked in two days ago. The grandmother taking care of her wasn't looking at that moment. This girl had a family member staying home with her; she wasn't at day care. They found her body yesterday morning.
I admit you may have a point. I'll ask my wife. If you look up "mother" in the dictionary, you'll see her picture.
And you didn't have to work when you had kids at home. Ducky for you. It's because you didn't make any bad choices. You are far superior to all those parents who have to work. You've never been stressed out to the point that you couldn't meet all your obligations, because you always make good choices. There is no need to have compassion for people when bad things happen to them, because you know that bad things only happen to people who make bad choices. So they deserve their fate. You deserve to be admired and held up as an example for the world. Everybody should be just like you. Then there would be no need for understanding, because we'd all be perfect.
"I hope nothing bad ever happens to you. It would change your world-view so fast it would make you dizzy."
Amen
Thanks.
I think she's suffering enough as it is.
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