Experts warn parents after child dies in car

Dubai: Medics have warned parents to take child safety seriously after a three-year-old Yemeni boy died when he was left in a car.

The boy’s family had forgotten he was there and left him for almost three hours on Friday afternoon.

Dr Raymond Hamden, a leading psychologist at the Dubai Human Relations Institute, said leaving a child behind in any weather condition, especially in extreme heat, would leave a mark on the person entrusted with the care of the child for the rest of their life.

“This may be regarded as a criminal act. Parents may always have the best intentions but make careless errors that are costly.”

Dr Hamden emphasised that even while on quick errands such as going to the post office or to the ATM, “it is better to take children along rather than leave them in the car.”

Another expert, Dr Shahzad Khan, a specialist paediatrician and owner of the Cooper Health Clinic, warned that children can fall into danger within minutes or even seconds of leaving them alone.

“It is never advisable to leave kids alone in the car, even with the windows down. The car is like a greenhouse and the temperatures can get exceedingly hot in an exceedingly short time and there is no safe amount of time to leave children in the car.

“Kids are more susceptible and are at higher risk of heat-related illness and injury than adults because their bodies produce more heat relative to their size, and their abilities to cool through sweating are not as developed as adults. Children’s thermoregulatory systems are not as efficient as an adult’s and their body temperatures warm at a rate three to five times faster than an adult. As a result, just a few minutes can be extremely dangerous for a small child.”

For example, he added, if the outside temperature is 22 Celsius, the temperature can rocket within an hour in a car — with a 70 per cent increase in the first 30 minutes. Heat stroke occurs when a person’s temperature exceeds 40C and their thermoregulatory mechanism is overwhelmed.

Dr Khan said children in such situations can suffer from heat stroke, disorientation, dizziness, agitation, confusion, sluggishness, seizure, hot dry skin that is flushed but not sweaty, rapid heart beat, hallucinations, loss of consciousness or death.

— Amna Rahman is an intern at Gulf News