Dubai: “Had I stayed away a minute longer, my 18-month-old son would have suffocated to death — alone — inside my car.”
Wajahat Ali, a father of four, shared this realisation after reading in Gulf News the story of a six-year-old Emirati girl who died after being forgotten in their family car for six hours on September 4.
The story brought back a painful experience to Ali — something he would never wish to happen to any parent.
Bracing for a potential public backlash, Ali decided to speak up about the night he almost lost his son with the hope that no child would be left behind in a car ever again.
One July night at around 9pm, Ali, 33, left his family home in Ras Al Khaimah to visit his garage just 5km away to oversee the daily operations and speak to his brother. With him was 18-month-old Mohammad Saaim Wajahat, Ali’s youngest child and second son.
“I left my son in the car because I expected I would get back in probably five minutes. I thought it’s OK to leave him for a few minutes if the air-conditioning is switched on,” the administration manager from Pakistan told Gulf News.
Ali was confident Mohammad would be all right. He was standing four metres from the car after all.
“I would occasionally glance at my car to see if my son was OK inside. The windows were closed and I could see him from where I was — moving back and forth between the two front seats.”
Unfortunately, the conversation took longer than expected, Ali said, unsure if it was 15 minutes or longer.
So just as he was walking to his car, Ali noticed something amiss.
“It was like a thunderstorm when I opened the door and saw my son. His body was burning hot. He apparently had switched the AC off and I didn’t know. He usually does this when we drive.”
Children’s bodies heat up three to five times faster than adults’ because their body mass is smaller and their thermoregulatory system is not yet mature.
Leaving children inside an enclosed car with no AC could expose them to a slow and painful death as doctors told Gulf News in an earlier experiment in August. The two doctors stayed in a parked car without AC to illustrate the dangers of hot car interiors to children.
Ali said he immediately turned on the AC and gave his son some water to cool down his body.
“I hugged him and held him in my arms as I was thanking Allah Almighty that I didn’t stay away a minute longer. What if I was not around and took a few more minutes to come back?”
“That was like a nightmare for me. I thought that he was just playing that’s why he was moving back and forth on the two front seats. But on hindsight, I realised he was trying to call me.”
Death could occur within minutes for children inside hot cars. Ali was fortunate that the incident didn’t happen during the day when car interiors could feel like an oven within minutes.
“I learnt the [biggest] lesson of my life. Yes, I’ve heard stories of parents leaving their children in cars and finding them dead. Being a parent and having a child who survived an incident like this, I would urge parents to please be very careful and never leave your children in the car.
“If kids are left in the car with the hope that the AC is turned on, it isn’t sufficient. A faulty engine can cause the AC to be switched off automatically or another car can hit your parked car, which could lead to your child’s death. Children should not be left unsupervised in the car at any cost.”
