posted August 16, 2008 09:57 PM            

updated 5:40 p.m. ET Aug. 15, 2008
HOUSTON -

A 3-year-old boy was left in his mother's truck in 90-degree heat as she worked her shift at a hospital, then wriggled free from his car seat and even tried to start the ignition or open the windows before he died, officials said.

The mother of Cameron Thomas Boone told investigators she forgot to drop him off at day care. She returned to the truck about nine hours later to find him unconscious Thursday.

The woman broke the back windshield and called for help, but the boy was dead when she took him to North Cypress Medical Center, where she worked, Sheriff's Lt. John Denholm said. A key the child had put in the ignition automatically locked the doors, so the woman had to use a rock to break in, officials said.

Security guards were patrolling the lot, but the truck had tinted windows and it was difficult to see inside, Denholm said.

The sheriff's office would not identify the mother or disclose her position at the hospital. Calls to the hospital were not returned Friday.

No charges have been filed.

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I am so sickened and saddened by this tragic death. I have a 3 year old. I cannot imagine any circumstance where I would "forget" he was in the car. Wouldn't the daycare have called her at work and asked why her son wasn't dropped off? That's the policy where I'm at anyway. I can't imagine the suffering that poor little boy felt, trying to save himself! and don't begin to cover it.

posted August 17, 2008 11:10 AM              

I don't know how this sort of thing happens, but it happens and it scares me. I have a friend, a good mother. One late winter morning, after her husband had left for work, she and her toddler climbed on the couch for a quick rest. Her son quickly fell asleep and the mom, exhausted from working two jobs, feel asleep along with him. She was wakened by a neighbor walking through her kitchen very nervously calling her name. The baby had woke up, managed to open the kitchen door (the sort that is locked from the outside but is still open on the inside) and wandered outside. Thank God the neighbor happened to look out his window and see the boy, in nothing but his diaper no less, playing in the snow.

That was about 7 years ago but I know she still wonders what might have happened if he made it to the street or had been overcome by the cold and unable to get back inside.

Just last week, a few towns over, a mother of five lost her youngest in a pool accident. He walked out of the kitchen while she was making breakfast and fell off the deck into the pool. One of the other children had accidentally left the latch unlocked. 14 months old.

posted August 17, 2008 11:24 AM              

quote:

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At least 15 small children have died so far this year nationwide after being left in hot vehicles, according to a study published in Pediatrics, the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics and updated July 12. Last year, 29 children died, and 42 died in 2005, and a total of 336 have perished since 1998. Of the total, 101 were less than a year old.

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http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070726/ai_n19448095

quote:

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Parents, though they are busy with hectic schedules that often include both of them working, need to slow down and pay more attention, she said. "This guy is not alone," she said of David Fish. "These are often educated, caring and, dare I say it, doting parents. This is the profile of these people."

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http://ggweather.com/heat/6_2003.htm

posted August 18, 2008 08:01 AM            

I think a bit of parental paranoia is a good thing. I'm the triple checking kind of person now ... and I never used to be before my son was old enough to crawl. Mobile child = near heart failure at times.