Heatstroke claims its 29th victim, a three-month-old baby, who died after his mother 'forgot' him in the car
Aiden Miller is become the 29th victim to die due to heatstroke in the United States. The three-month-old baby was discovered still strapped into his infant car seat by his mother at around 4:30 p.m. on July 23 in New Albany, southern Indiana. Aaron Turner, the infant's father said that his "heart is broken" by the death of his son. The baby's mother, Aaron's ex-girlfriend accidentally left the baby in a hot car for almost an entire day.
Speaking of his heartache, Aaron said: "I don’t understand how this could happen and my heart is broken. My biggest hope is in sharing this story, another child’s life will not be lost." He said that his ex-girlfriend had told him she dropped off their two-year-old daughter at the Kids Care Academy daycare on July 23 morning and that she was supposed to drop off the three-month-old boy at a different daycare shortly after.
WLKY reported that even though the two daycares were only a couple of miles apart for the woman to drop off the children, she instead drove directly to her workplace which is the medical center, Express Care. The mother alleged that she had completely forgotten about their infant son's presence in the car and that he was left for many hours inside the hot vehicle in the parking lot.
When the woman had left work at the end of the day, she found the infant in an unresponsive state in the back seat of the vehicle. The temperatures outside had hit about 78F (25.6C) on July 23. In spite of being immediately rushed into the medical center where she worked where staff performed CPR on him, the infant was pronounced dead.
Turner told Wave 3 News in an interview: "Any way that I can prevent this from happening ever again, that’s how I’m going to celebrate his life." He went on by saying that his ex-girlfriend had called him on the way to the hospital. He said: "She came out to the car, and she says she opened the car door and was like, "what is that smell" and she noticed that Aiden was still in the back seat." The distraught father had initially been "hurt and angry" but then said: "I still don’t understand how that happens. I mean obviously it happens, it just happened to my family. It doesn’t get any closer to home than this." He has asked that the community say prayers for his family, including his ex-girlfriend.
The Criminal Investigations Division of the New Albany Police is investigating the infant's death. A spokesperson for the department has said that the police officers will not release any more information at this point in time. KidsAndCars.org has said that in this year so far, there have been "28 confirmed child vehicular heatstroke deaths in the United States. This represents more hot car deaths than we have ever suffered by July 22 during any year in US history."
The site also says that on an average, 37 children die in hot cars in the US alone. It also added: "KidsAndCars.org is urging parents and caregivers to be extra vigilant during any changes in the daily routine. This is when most tragedies occur." The list in the child safety organization's website has shown that Aiden Miller is the 29th child to die so far after being left in a hot vehicle. The official cause of death has not yet been released.