A 10-month-old baby girl has died after being left in a hot car Tuesday in Jennings. Jennings Police Chief Danny Semmes says the girl’s mother was unexpectedly called into work at a local restaurant and accidentally left the child in the car during her hour-and-a-half long shift.
“When she came back out from her short shift, she noticed the child in the backseat unresponsive and immediately drove to Ochsner [Health Center] and brought the child into the emergency room,” he explains.
This is the second child to pass after being left in a hot car in the state this year. Semmes says this investigation is ongoing, but the mother maintains she left her child in the hot car by accident and took the baby to the hospital as soon as she realized.
“It’s obvious that herself and her husband are both beside themselves over this incident,” Semmes says. “We all are.”
Temperatures were in the mid-90s across Acadiana on Tuesday, with head indexes over 105 degrees. With temperatures that high, Semmes says it’s a miracle hospital workers were able to establish a pulse on the baby, though she ended up passing away Wednesday night.
“We were told that the child’s temperature was 109 [degrees] at the time she was brought into the hospital by hospital staff,” Semmes says. “We have no idea at this time what the temperature was in the car, but I’m sure it was in excess of 120 [degrees].”
Another infant passed on July 30th in East Baton Rouge Parish after being left in a hot car.
According to Kids and Car Safety, the ten-month old from Jennings is the 23rd child who has died this year after being left in a hot car. It’s the second one in Louisiana.
Kids and Car Safety say since 1995 at least 46 children have died in hot cars in Louisiana, making Louisiana the sixth worst state in the country when it comes to child hot car deaths.
