It’s something you hear about other people doing: leaving a small child in a hot car while they run an errand.
Yet, despite how common it is, it often ends tragically.
The latest instance happened in Bakersfield, California, about two hours north of Los Angeles, when Maya Hernandez left her two small children in a vehicle while she got lip filler injections.
Highlights
- The mother of two is in police custody after leaving her kids in a hot car, resulting in the passing of her youngest child
- Experts say a hot vehicle is like an oven and is especially dangerous for small children
- This isn’t the first time such an incident has happened, as dad in AZ faces a life sentence
One of her children did not make it out alive.
Maya Hernandez left her two babies in a hot car for 2.5 hours
Image credits: Maya Hernandez / Facebook
Image credits: Maya Hernandez / Facebook
A few weeks after her 20th birthday, Hernandez said she went to the Always Beautiful Med Spa to get a lip filler procedure that would take approximately two and a half hours.
Apparently, without a babysitter, Hernandez had initially texted the spa to ask if her two children, aged 2 and 1, were allowed to join her, according to a media report.
The woman who performed the lip injection texted: “Sure if you don’t mind them waiting in the waiting room, Hun,” WKBN reports.
Instead, Hernandez made a different decision, one that would prove fatal.
“He gets red easily”: Hernandez thought her 1 YO son was ok when she found him beet red
Image credits: Maya Hernandez / Facebook
Image credits: KGET News / YouTube
According to police, when Hernandez’s lip filler was finished, she returned to her car and found her 2-year-old soaked in sweat, and that her 1-year-old “was red”.
Media say Hernandez wasn’t concerned at first because “he gets red easily”, but she became worried when he started having a seizure.
She then went back into the spa with her kids to ask for help and to call 911, the emergency police number in the U.S.A.
Image credits: 23ABC News | KERO / YouTube
Reports say Hernandez initially thought leaving the kids in the car would be okay. She had left them crackers, candy, milk, and her cellphone propped up so they could watch videos.
What she didn’t count on was that the car’s engine would shut off after an hour.
“She was certain that her car would stay on”: Police say Hernandez thought it would be ok
Image credits: ABC30 Action News / YouTube
According to WKBD, who spoke to the Bakersfield Police Department, Hernandez’s vehicle, a Toyota Corolla Hybrid, was parked facing west during the hottest part of the day.
Still, police say, Hernandez did not think it would be dangerous to leave the kids in the car.
“She stated she was certain that her car would stay on with the air conditioning running the whole time she was gone, because she had been in her car for extended periods of time before and had even slept in her car,” WKBD quotes police as saying.
Image credits: ABC30 Action News / YouTube
Vehicle and car service experts have told the Bakersfield police that “the engine of an unattended Toyota Corolla Hybrid’s air conditioner can shut off after one hour.”
The temperature inside Hernandez’s vehicle was 101 degrees, according to media reports.
Many parents make the snap decision to leave their kids in the car, thinking it's harmless
Image credits: Maya Hernandez / Facebook
Image credits: Help Us Bring Amillio Home / gofundme
It’s not uncommon for parents to dash into a store and leave their kids in the car for a brief moment.
Many times, parents feel it's faster because unloading a child from a car seat and packing them into a stroller can be cumbersome and time-consuming.
It's clear that the family of the child, Amillo Gutierrez, is heartbroken. A GoFundMe campaign started by the child's paternal grandmother is asking for support. The page reads, in part: "My grandson was only one year old when his mom left him and his 2-year-old brother alone in her car."
Image credits: Katie Martinez / Facebook
Local media reports that Katie Martinez found out that her grandson had passed after her son, who is incarcerated, called her from jail. On the GoFundMe page, Martinez says Amillo was "loved by so many," and that their "lives will not be the same." She added that "your dad loves you so much; you did not deserve this."
Regardless of the fact that Hernandez seemingly never meant to harm her children, kids' advocacy groups around the world all agree that it's never ok to leave a child in a vehicle, even for a quick minute.
Image credits: 23ABC News | KERO / YouTube
According to the nonprofit Safe Kids Worldwide, which works to reduce preventable injuries to children ages 0-19, the number of children who perish inside hot vehicles is insanely high.
“Every nine days, a child d**s from being left unattended in a hot car. These d**ths were preventable. As summer temperatures rise, more kids are at risk,” their website says.
“A hot car is like an oven”: Experts explain why hot vehicles are so dangerous
Image credits: Katie Martinez / Facebook
Experts say a car in the sun works like an oven: it absorbs the heat transmitted by the sun’s rays, and doesn’t allow this heat to escape, producing a kind of greenhouse effect that raises the temperature constantly, faster and faster.
According to the Spanish Pediatric Association, a small child aged between one and five can lose their life within 30 to 60 minutes if locked in the car in summer, without ventilation.
That’s because small children “accumulate more heat, faster” than adults and because very small children, aged 0-1, don’t sweat as much, and can’t release the heat from their bodies.
Christopher Scholtes from Arizona left his 2-year-old in a hot car while he played video games
Image credits: Pima County Jail
Stories abound about similar situations.
In Arizona, a father of three is awaiting trial for leaving his 2-year-old daughter asleep in the back of his running car last August while he played video games.
Christopher Scholtes faces first-degree m**der and child abuse charges after he told police that he left his 2-year-old daughter in the back of his car in the driveway of his home because she was napping and he didn’t want to wake her up.
Scholtes then played video games for three hours inside his house, apparently forgetting that his daughter was asleep in the hot car.
When his wife finally came home and discovered their daughter was still in the car, it was too late.
Image credits: Abby Blabby- True Crime & News / Facebook
Media say Scholtes told police that he was aware that his car, a Honda Acura MDX, did have an automatic shut-off feature.
But he apparently forgot about it at the time.
Scholtes was allowed to join his two remaining daughters and his wife for a vacation in Maui earlier this year.
Scholtes refused a plea deal for second-degree murder charges and could be sentenced to life after his trial in October.
Netizens are outraged that parents continue to neglect their children in this way
