Doctor sits in hot car to show dangerous effects heat can have on children

We have all heard the warnings about leaving kids and pets in cars, but it keeps happening. Today the head of the emergency department at McMaster Children’s hospital put himself in a child’s shoes and sat inside a hot car to show just how dangerous it can be.

Dr. Anthony Crocco sat inside a parked car for almost 15 minutes while temperatures inside reached about 40 degrees. He wanted to show people just how hot it can get inside a car and what happens to your body as a warning for parents.

The difference for Dr. Crocco is he had paramedics standing by monitoring him and he only spent 15 minutes inside the car. For a child who’s tightly buckled into a car seat which acts as an insulator their bodies can shut down 4 or 5 times faster. Also if the weather had been sunnier today the temperature inside the car could have easily climbed higher than 60 degrees.

“These kids very quickly can become lethargic and have seizures because they aren’t regulating their temperature, their heart rate is up, they are getting dehydrated, their oxygen may be changing.”

There are no stats available in Canada but in the U.S. about 37 children die each year after being left in hot cars.”