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.
This happened in Dallas about 5 years back. A waitress at a restaurant left her child in the back seat and about 4 hours later, shoppers discovered it. It was too late for the child.
Why again, do they have to be put in the backseat, out of sight, out of mind? Just sadly stupid on the part of everyone involved.
Make that mom or dad. You made the kid, it's your responsibility to care for it not someone else's. We made the decision that one of us would be home or available for ours until they graduate high school. Teens, in their own peculiar ways, need their parents just as much as toddlers.
I would only ammend that slightly... "But any a-hole can reproduce."
Most Lefties see children as jewelry or at best pets. It all about them, not their kids.
That is why they promote promiscuity and sexual deviance and work to ensure kids don't have a stable home life.
"This is my kid's father" used to be embarrassing. Now, it is everyday.
Prayers for this poor baby's soul.
They belong in the back seat because the back seat is far from the dashboard and the windshield. They belong in the back because the driver needs to focus on driving, not fussing over a baby.
I think you nailed it. Out of site. Sleeping kid. Slips ones mind. Car seats should be allowed on front seat in plain view and this would not happen nearly as often. I know, what about crash protection etc.? The parent should decide front or back.
This happened in our area several years ago. The lady was considered a very good mother and she was not a moron. Before she dropped the child off she had to run an errand that wasn't part of her normal routine. The baby fell asleep and was behind her seat. Of course it destroyed mer marriage and her life.
Folks can call the woman in this story names all day long, but she'll beat herself up more than we can. I can't imagine the hell the rest of her life will be.
That, and they belong in the back seat because the government rammed passenger-side airbags down our throats...and THEN figured out that they kill small children. Ooops! Time to hide Junior in the back seat where you can't see him!
As the father of a five-month-old, I have a *little* more sympathy for these people than I used to. I know after some long drives, I've really had to forcibly remind myself to check in the back for my daughter. It's more likely now, though, that I'll think she's in the car when she isn't, than the other way around.
}:-)4
I predict that a few years from now we will be hearing about seniors found dead in car because their child forgot to drop them off at the old age center.
What goes around comes around.
So you're saying the fact that she left the child in the car proves she's a lefty?
I can imagine how you do it. We don't pay enough attention to the important job of raising our children. This child was being dropped off so the woman could go to work -- she probably had work on her mind.
Without passing judgment, I can safely say that, before we started setting up day care all over so people could drop their kids off and go to work instead of raising them, we had a lot fewer children dying because they were forgotten about.
Most of the cases where children are left alone in a car, it is because there has been such a division of labor in who is responsible for the child that everybody thinks someone else has the kid.
If the mother was the full-time caregiver, she never would have thought someone else was watching her kid.
We had a father in our town convicted for leaving a kid in the car, he had lots of kids and different kids took care of the little ones and one day every one got out of the car and each thought someone else had gotten the kid.
The judge rightly ruled that the father was responsible for making sure his child was cared for.
I hope a judge makes the same ruling here.
"That, and they belong in the back seat because the government rammed passenger-side airbags down our throats...and THEN figured out that they kill small children. Ooops! Time to hide Junior in the back seat where you can't see him!"
My daughter was born in 1986. We didn't even have a driver's airbag at the time. The advice even then was to put infants in the back seat. What changed following airbags, at least from what I remember, was advice that kids ride in the back until about age 12 or a certain height.
I know that feeling. Since mine is with me all day, I usually think I have the kiddo with me when I don't.
1st kid is center of universe anyway.
You're right. I'd forgotten about the airbags. Even without them, though, carseats belong in the back seat.
I also think that this woman will punish herself for a lifetime. I'm sorry for the poor, precious child, and I'm sorry for the mom who will live with this the rest of her life. I imagine that her marriage is probably destroyed unless they both are incredibly strong, wise, and dedicated. The whole thing is rotten. Life is so complicated these days.
Bingo!
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