Lunch Break: WWYD? Baby left in hot car
by LauraLoo
Baby left in an unventilated car on a hot day. ABC’s John Quiñones asks the question, “What would you do?”
I’m also left wondering what if the child was older (say age 3) and strapped in a car seat. They are older and can demonstrate verbal and nonverbal distress. Would any of those ”do nothing” selfish (or stupid) passerbyers who didn’t help the ‘baby’ do nothing again for the 3 year old?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saqIf6wIMhc[/youtube]
Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.
Jun.23, 2011 12:00 pm |
Video of the day |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I’d call the cops immediately. Ad if the baby (or child) looked like it needed help before the cops could get there, I’d tell the police what I was about to do & get that kid out.
People should call the police any time a child is left alone in a potentially dangerous situation
I would break the window.
THEN I would call 911.
(I am a 911 dispatcher and I would not hesitate to break a window. You would NOT be liable, in fact, the cops would thank you before they decided whether to arrest the parent.)
(I’m gonna assume people have enough common sense to break the FRONT window and NOT the one beside the baby.)
Sitting here in tears. Watching these people walk right on by. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Good grief. ”It’s not my car.” WHAT??
THANK YOU to those that got involved!!!
I have waited for parents and called 911. Don’t care if it’s not my car, my baby or my window. I have also called 911 on parents with no car seats.
We are not to wander the earth looking out for number one. Although it would seem that is how many live their lives.
I DEFINITELY would have stopped to check. One little “flaw” in their experiment: The doll they used looked like a newborn, but the “cry” they used sounded like a baby at least a year old, if not older.
(Sorry, but I notice things like that ;) )
I’d be finding a big rock and breaking the window immediately. I cannot believe how many people walked right on by, or saw the baby and still did nothing. God bless those outspoken folks who let the “mother” have it! I’d have said much more and much worse, I think.
And Pamela, I also noticed that the cry didn’t match the baby! Ha! Especially, since the baby was sound asleep.
In order, I would:
1. Break the front window on the opposite side of the car from the baby using as little force as is required so as not to shower the baby with tiny shards of glass.
2. Reach in and unlock the door.
3. Open all doors to immediately ventilate the car, but don’t remove the baby, lest one be accused of kidnapping.
4. Call 911
5. Remove any blankets from the baby and await emergency personnel. Copy the license plate number in case the parent comes back first and drives off.
Actually, under the circumstances, blankets on a baby in a hot car could be a blessing. Not sure what the curve would be on that, but a child’s perspiration would only help in moderate temperatures. If air temperatures soared above 120, the blanket would be the better thing. I think.
Until, yes, someone broke in to remove the child to cooler air.
I would definitely break a window and give the baby cooler air. Although getting the baby out would depend on whether it needed immediate assistance. However, I’m not sure I’d call the police. It would depend on the situation. If the baby needed medical attention or the parents seemed not to care (as this mother did), I would call police. However, sometimes good people who love their children make mistakes. I’ve seen CPS stick their noses into too many situations where they don’t belong that I would definitely think twice before telling a government organization what a parent did with their child.
The man at the end of the video said he would interfere again, because “it’s a life.” And yet, would he stop a pregnant woman from going into an abortion clinic? This was brilliant and relevant. Thanks. (And yes, I’d call the police immediately, TRY TO OPEN THE DOORS, and then wait for the police. A friend took a child out of a vehicle one time and nearly got herself arrested. Just get air to the child and wait on the authorities. )
Dawn,
The idea of calling 911 is not primarily punitive, it’s to ensure that the baby receives an immediate assessment. Many irresponsible parents would act concerned in order to get away clean.
I’d rather get detained by the cops than not break the window. I actually had to break the window of my husband’s truck once when I accidentally locked my son (and the keys) inside, it was surprisingly easy and I had him out of there in about a minute. I’d take whatever they charged me with in this situation rather than walk away. If this had been a dog trapped in the car, there’d be no end to the outrage.
I am astounded by these people. What have we become? Gerard is absolutely right, break the window, call the police. What is all this hand wringing about??? I have called the police when people leave their dogs in the car on hot days. This is a helpless baby!!
Here’s the follow up question of the day. If it were an animatronic DOG in the back barking – how many people would walk by?
I bet you more people would have gotten involved if it were Fido.
Wish the same group would do that scenario and compare notes.
This is why I am a sidewalk counselor…I can’t stand by while I know that the woman walking into the clinic is about to KILL her child.
and Lara Lee you hit the nail right on the head…more people would act if it was a dog that was left in the car. how sad, how very sad!
1. Find the parents
2. if no parents call 911
3. OPEN THE CAR by door or broken window
4.check baby. Not too bad? Remove blanket, fan her, wait for cops. Red and sweaty? Remove baby to nearby ACed store for cool down and water letting everyone know, “If mom comes back tell her I have her baby in here and I’m on the phone with the police.
I’m ok with going to jail if I save a child’s life. I would not let fear of judgement or rebuke stop me from doing the right thing. This is a life, not a game.
“Actually, under the circumstances, blankets on a baby in a hot car could be a blessing.”
You might be quite the philosophe and logician; but you sure ain’t no scientist. A blanket causes internal body temperatures to rise. Blanket – hot – Hellooo??????
The other responses were correct although Dr. Nadal is correct about avoiding glass on child. Christian Hippe is correct about getting the body temperature down. The first response should be to call the police. Nobody, however, said anything about calling a child abuse hotline which, hopefully, all states have. In RI it’s 1-800- RICHILD. That’s the second call.
Rasqual & CC, a blanket holds in body temperature, if the outside temperature is greater than body temperature a blanket can help keep a person ‘comparitively’ cool. People in desert environments where temps can get to be 120 or above sometimes use blankets to help keep them cool, because 98.6 degrees is significantly cooler! BUT this requires a dry environment and is not the case for infants. Very small children can not regulate their body temperatures. Instead of keeping them a ‘cool’ 98.6, just being in a hot environment can drive their body temperature up to dangerous levels. So, you’re both right, more or less, but blankets on small children in heat, not a good idea.
And yet, somehow, a kid only a few weeks younger can be walked by their mother into a facility that legally kills that same child at the mother’s behest. It makes no sense.
I bet the one who said “It’s not my car.” would also be holding a sign yelling “My body, my choice” at a PP rally.
My impulse, prior to watching the video would be to call the police and wait by the car until they arrived, to keep an eye on the child. And if I saw anything that made it seem that the child was getting overheated, break one of the windows, one that was farther away from the baby, probably in the front seat.
Honestly, I don’t know how some people can not know what hot cars in summer can do to living things.
First, see if the door is unlocked.
Just sayin’
Jespren: Right. If the temperature were high enough in the car that the parent (babysitter?!) would be right to use a blanket, then this parent (babysitter) would be insane because the margins of survival would be razor thin.
However, I think you’re wrong on the need of a dry environment for a blanket to help at extraordinarily high temperatures. In 100% humidity, there would be no cooling from evaporation from sweat. The only hope of survival without such cooling would be to insulate the body from the heat.
Alas, we must breathe — and our lungs’ insane surface area makes for efficient heat exchange.
It’s not easy to break a car window. :-(
I’ve been in a couple situations where I needed to have a stick to beat something with (no, it wasn’t pro-choicers yammering nonsense), and it’s amazing how rare the right thing is when you need it.
Rasqual, you may be right, dry heat may not be a requirement, but the only cultures I know who use blankets in the heat are all desert peoples. (Possibly because desert people tend to already wear near to fully covering clothes while equitorial cultures, heat plus humidity, tend to traditionally wear as little as possible)
Gentles All,
A number of parents put a blanket over the baby in the summer while driving with the air conditioner on. I see it pretty frequently.
Jespren: Doubtless they of the “but it’s dry heat. you should visit us sometime!” variety. ;-)
Having lived in both arid and humid places, I’ll take the arid any day, heat or otherwise!
Gerard: I suspect the use of a blanket in the video was to make the situation more compelling as a dire circumstance to folks — intuitively a blanket on a hot day is going to seem more crazy to most people.
The first woman’s explanation seems the most plausible to explain passersby. We rarely expect that something calling for intervention is unfolding before our eyes. That’s stuff we hear of on the news, not stuff we come across. Most of us live uneventful lives and so events seem improbable. We frame reality as improbably including crazy stuff.
Kudos to the interveners, obviously, but my other thought is just wow, that actress must have nerves of steel. What a role.
This makes me very sad. I can’t believe that people could just walk by and ignore a child that can die within half an hour in a closed car in the heat.
BTW, LaraLee, I would do the same if it were a child or a dog. Vegetarian animal-lover here, not all of us are pro-choice, though a depressing amount are.
First I would very, very quickly call out to see if the mother was within range. I’m talking 30 seconds or so here.
Then I’d call 911 and attempt to open the doors. If they wouldn’t open, I’d break the window and then open all the doors to let in air. If the baby was over heated, I’d ask the dispatcher what I needed to do to get the child cool, and I’d do it.
If the mother arrived and seemed not to care, I’d probably call CPS, even though the police had already been contacted. If she came out frantic because she had made a terrible mistake, I probably wouldn’t do the last step since the police had already been notified.
I would be willing to bet they would get many more helpful responses had the car been parked in a “less affluent” neighborhood.
I watch this show pretty often, but I missed this one. Sometimes watching it, I’m not sure what I’d do in a situation, but this one I knew immediately. I have children myself and I know how dangerous it is for them to be left in the car… they could be kidnapped, abused, murdered or they could overheat and die. I would do like a lot of others here said… I would check to see if the car was unlocked and if it wasn’t, I’d break a window and get things opened up and call 911. If necessary, I’d pull the baby out of the car. There would be no hesitation, even though I am normally a fairly reserved/shy/timid person. Seeing a baby alone, trapped in a parked car would terrify me. I’d be so scared for that baby. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to the baby, even if I wasn’t the one that left him or her in that car. I have to say that even though this was a social experiment and the baby was just a doll and the mother was an actress, I cried watching it. I can’t believe all the people that just walked by and did nothing or that were more concerned that the car didn’t belong to them. When it comes to saving a life, you don’t worry about those kinds of things. Also, if I encountered that mother, I doubt I would have been nearly as gracious as others.
I know I would try to do something…maybe call 911 or try to find the mother. If I was with someone, I’d have them stay with the car and run into the store if I was at a store and maybe have the PA system announce something about the baby.
There was a really sad thing that happened I think a year ago? A mother didn’t realize she forgot to drop her child off at day care and left the child in her car while she was at work. It was horrible.