Just a few days after New Year on a pleasant sunny day West
of Melbourne in Australia a two year old girl baked to death
as she was trapped alone in her family’s parked car.
By the time her mother missed her, and when the girl was finally
found she was dead. Research has shown that the temperature
in a parked car, with no open windows or air conditioning
can rise from 20 degrees to 60 degrees in 20 minutes. Inside
that car it was 32 degrees in the shade on the day that this
child was trapped. You could not even imagine how that poor
child must have suffered before she finally slipped into a
coma and finally died. Unfortunately this is not the first
time that this has happened and it will not be the last. In
this case it seems that the tragedy was truly an accident
and that the family were not even aware that the child was
in the vehicle until it was to late. It seemed that the child
actually found her own way into the car while it was parked.
Ask any Animal Welfare officer and they will tell you that
pets, in particular dogs, frequently meet the same fate when
owners leave their furry friends for “just a short time”
only to be forgotten and found dead in a frenzied mess later.
I recently heard of a Seminyak family who’s Golden Retriever
almost destroyed the cars interior before finally succumbing
to the searing heat. He should have destroyed the car as far
as I’m concerned. Perhaps next time they would think
before leaving such a magnificent animal to die such a torturous
death.
Heat related injury happens much faster to children (and pets)
than with adults so being in a hot car for quite a short time
can be very dangerous for young ones. The problem with young
children is that they don’t have the ability to regulate
their temperature in the same way that an adult does. Children
sweat less (therefore hold in heat) as they have less sweat
glands in any given area; the sweat glands have smaller capacity,
and a lower sensitivity to heat. They have a much smaller
blood volume that adults therefore will dehydrate losing much
smaller amounts of fluids than adults. They also have a larger
surface area to body mass ratio (more skin less body weight)
therefore a greater evaporative fluid loss than adults. Pets
of course have the added difficulty of being covered in a
warm fuzzy layer called “fur”. What’s more,
they do not have the ability to lose heat by sweating as people
do. The only place a dog (or cat) can “sweat”
is on their tongue, which is why they pant in the heat.
Some tips on preventing this happening to a child or pet in
your car would be: • DON’T LEAVE THEM IN THE CAR
IN THE FIRST PLACE, even with the windows open, or the engine
running with the A/C on. If the engine stalls, the A/C will
go off. So while you may think that the child / pet is perfectly
comfortable in the car, they are actually baking.
• Make sure that you LOCK you car when it is parked
even when you are at home. Children love to climb into parked
cars and mimic adults. They find it very difficult to open
windows/ doors from the inside and their screams / cries /
and barks cannot be heard.
• If you come across a child or a pet that has been
locked inside a vehicle and is distressed don’t waste
time looking for the owner of the car. If the owner does not
show up in less than a few minutes, or if you feel that the
child / pet is already in distress smash the window. Give
the glass a very firm thump in the lower corner of the window
(pick the smallest window, they are cheaper to replace!) with
your shoe or other hard object and the glass will break very
easily. You can then put your hand through the window and
unlock the door. If the owner of the car shows up you can
then thump them on the head with your shoe as well!
“Kim Patra is a qualified Registered Nurse and Midwife
that has been living and working in Bali for almost twenty
years. She now runs her own private practice and medical referral
service from her Kuta office. Kim is happy to discuss any
health concerns with you and she may be contacted via e-mail
at info@chcbali.com or Hp. 081 2366 0000”.
