9-month-old, left inside car for two hours, on life support

Jace Radke

Wednesday, May 23, 2001 | 10:15 a.m.

A 9-month-old boy left inside a parked car for about two hours Tuesday afternoon remained on life support this morning in University Medical Center's pediatric intensive care unit.

North Las Vegas Police are investigating and will forward the case to the Clark County District Attorney to decide if any criminal charges will be filed, Lt. Art Redcay, a police spokesman, said.

The boy was found by his mother about 2:30 p.m.

North Las Vegas Police say that the baby was left in a car seat inside a Dodge Durango, which was parked in the driveway of a home in the 2400 block of Bahama Point Avenue, near Simmons Street and Lone Mountain Road.

"It looks like the mother had the 9-month-old and a 3-year-old," Sgt. Jimmy Jackson said. "They got to the house at about 12:30 p.m., and they forgot the baby in the car."

Another woman and her children, 3 and 5, were at the home, but police are not sure if they were in the Durango or if they arrived in another car, Jackson said.

"About two hours after arriving at the house they realized that the baby wasn't there," Jackson said. "The mother got the baby out of the car and took him inside and poured cool water on him to lower his body temperature."

The outside temperature at the time the baby was in the Durango was around 95 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Children left in cars can be burned by seat belts and car seats heated by the sun, but the greatest danger is in the air, which gets "super-heated" in a closed car, Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

Fire officials say that during the summer in Las Vegas, temperatures inside parked cars can reach 170 degrees.

Earlier this month a 5-year-old boy found hiding in a car trunk at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway died after being hospitalized for several days.

Michael Esposito was reportedly playing hide-and-seek May 6 in a dirt lot behind the stands at one of the tracks at the speedway. The boy apparently hid in the trunk of his mother's car.

Esposito was in the trunk for about 30 minutes, with outside temperatures around 90 degrees.