DEARBORN, Mich. (WXYZ) — A distraught mother stood outside a Dearborn gas station pleading with police after her newborn was accidentally locked inside her car — along with her keys — on a hot June day.
Body camera footage from the June 8 incident shows officers responding to the scene outside an Amoco gas station, where a clerk says he helped the mother call for help.
Watch Brett Kast's video report below:
"Obviously, there's a baby inside and it's really hot, so we didn't want to waste any time. We called the cops," clerk Abe Nahshal said.
Nahshal said the mother was looking for help. Police and the mother waited for a tow truck to open the door, but responding officers felt time was running out.
Body camera footage captures the moment officers used a tool to shatter the car window, open the door and immediately hear the baby's cries.
"Our officers responded. They quickly assessed the scene. They determined immediately this was a dangerous situation," Dearborn Police Cpl. Dan Bartok said. “The officers made some great decisions that day because with the temperature as hot as it was, it could only take minutes for the temperature inside to become deadly."
Watch the body camera video below:
Officers on scene reported the baby was just 1 month old.
"Babies can't tolerate that level of heat for very long — we're talking minutes," Bartok said.
With temperatures expected to surpass 90 degrees, a car can become dangerously hot inside very quickly once it is turned off.
"It can be devastating within minutes, especially in the car there's no running circulation," Dr. Patricia Paz-Arabo said.
Paz-Arabo is the emergency physician chair at Trinity Health Livonia. She says cases like this are not uncommon.
"We do see it, sadly. We still see it. Sometimes, infants can be forgotten in the back seat, especially when they fall asleep. Sometimes, it's inadvertent," Paz-Arabo said.
According to noheatstroke.org, there were 33 heat stroke deaths from children left in cars last year nationwide, and six so far this year. The most recent happened on June 20 in Florida, when a 3-year-old boy was found dead in a car parked outside his family's home in suburban Tampa.
"Those are really the patients that keep us up at night," Paz-Arabo said. "These dangerous heats with very high humidity poses a very severe risk for our young and our elderly.”
Paz-Arabo says young children cannot regulate body temperature the way adults can. Police are urging parents, caregivers and bystanders to stay hydrated and vigilant.
"We have several days of very hot weather, very high humidity coming up and it's important that parents, guardians take time to check their back seats and make sure no children, no pets are left inside the vehicle," Bartok said.
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