With this week’s heat wave, health officials are warning of dangers associated with leaving a child or pet in a car. Last year nationwide,39 children died after being left in cars. Already this year, 29 have died.
Lane County Public Health Doctor Patrick Luedtke says infants are especially vulnerable to heatstroke.
“If you think of your typical 12 ounce can of soda or 12 ounce can of beer, the whole blood volume of an infant is about 2/3s of that can. That’s the total amount of blood they have in their whole body.”
Luedtke says babies have very little reserves in terms of fluid. They can become fatally dehydrated very quickly. Luedtke says be very careful of kids and pets left in cars during this extreme heat.
“Oh gosh, those are preventable deaths. It’s really a very sad event.”
The Oregon legislature passed a bill this year that exempts people from criminal or civil liability if they break into a car to rescue a pet or a child.
Copyright 2017 KLCC.
