A father who was visiting a friend at an apartment on Piikoi Street left his 3 year old daughter in his car for an hour and 40 minutes.  The car was turned off with the windows up.  When the father arrived back to his car, he found his daughter unconscious.  He took her to the nearest fire station where they transported her to the Kapiolani Women’s and Children’s Medical center, where she was later pronounced dead.

Now this is just ridiculous.  How could somebody FORGET their child, and for almost two hours?!  I know of stories where parents left their child in their car because they were going to quickly pick up some lunch, go to the bank, etc.  But to forget them for almost 2 hours is unfathomable.  And with the weather being around 81 degrees, the interior of the vehicle with the windows up is around 130 degrees after an hour.

The radio had an interesting opinion on this case, because they also reported that the child had cerebral palsy.  Their speculation was that they think the father delibrately left the child in the car to let her die, and used the excuse that he forgot the child was in the car.  Perhaps the father did not want to raise a child with cerebral palsy or was maybe embarressed?  Whatever the case, this speculation might not be far from the truth.

What also concerned me was what the police could do in instances where they find a child alone in a car.  The radio noted that police can only do one of two things.  One, they could find the parents and “scold” them, or two, take the child away from the parents and turn them over the child protective services.  OK, the latter I can understand.  But to “scold” them?  I seriously DOUBT that would do anything to prevent the parents from doing that again.  Parents who are that careless, especially with their own child, should be punished for their actions.  Something to let them know that they are NEVER to do that again.

As of now, the case is considered as an unattended death.  Let’s hope this never happens again.

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