A 32-year-old woman has been charged after her child was discovered in a hot car in Melbourne and rushed to hospital in critical condition.
On Wednesday onlookers spotted a child in a Suzuki SUV in the carpark of Brook Point Cook Community Club. The owner of the car arrived and realised the state the child was in. Highly distraught, she alerted staff at the venue, who called emergency services and requested help from a medical centre next door.
A doctor from the Centre was the first to arrive and began treatment on the 14-month-old boy before he was taken to Royal Children’s Hospital.
Windows of the car had been partially open, but the child is thought to have been in there for up to five hours.
In 2019 the Victorian Government launched its Never Leave Kids in Cars campaign, and signs in the Club’s carpark warn drivers “do not leave children in cars”.
Research shows a child’s body temperature can rise three to five times faster than an adult’s, and that the temperature in a car can quickly get to 20 to 30-dgrees Celsius hotter than outside.
Police were called at around 3:15, when the temperature in the area was around 36°C.
Westgate Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team has charged the woman with ‘negligently causing serious injury’ and ‘reckless conduct endangering life’. Police are investigating if she was in the venue playing poker machines.
The Club, with 80 EGMS licensed to Geelong Football Club, closed at 7pm on the night of the incident, but reopened the following day.
Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos reports nearly 1,500 children were found left in vehicles in Victoria from January to November last year.
A spokesperson for the Hospital has reported the toddler remains in a critical but stable condition.
If he does not survive it is suggested the investigation could be transferred to the homicide squad.
The Gladstone Park woman was granted bail, and is due to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 23 January.