EMSA: Number Of Kids Left In Locked Cars Becoming Alarming Trend

EMSA responded to so many 911 calls about kids left in hot cars in June, the rate was one per day in Oklahoma City.

Parents keep making the potentially deadly mistake and it will only get hotter in July and August.

EMSA dispatcher Mel Spruill answered a lot of the emergency calls for help. “31 calls in a month is unbelievable,” said Spruill.

Two of the children in those cases went to the hospital. One of them was in serious condition.

In the other 29 cases, someone was able to free the child from the vehicle before heat illness set in.

“I know what it feels like to get in my car before it's had a chance to cool off and it's unbearable, and if it's unbearable to us as adults, it's definitely unbearable to these children,” Spruill said.

On Wednesday, July 1, three more calls came in about kids left in hot cars and OKC firefighters had to break the car glass to get to the kids in one instance.

On a hot day, a locked car can heat up 20 degrees in 10 minutes. When your core body temperature gets to 107 degrees, the damage begins. It's even worse for a child, whose body temps warm three to five times faster than adults.

“Their vital organs start shutting down and from there it's just a downward spiral,” said EMSA Paramedic Brian Bottom.

Many of the 31 cases were just accidents, but EMSA said one grandparent left several kids in the car so she could go inside to tan.

“Five minutes is not okay,” Spruill told News 9.  “The best rule of thumb is if you get out of the car, take your child with you,” she added.

If you see a child in a hot car, call 911. In most cases, a new Oklahoma law allows and protects a Good Samaritan who is forced to break the glass to free a child from a locked car.