The news of the death of an infant in Arta, where he was left forgotten for 8 hours in his father's vehicle, has caused a shock. The Director of Pediatrics of the Larnaca General Hospital, Dr. Adamos Hatzipanagis.
First he said that statistics in America show that in the last 20 years a child dies every 10 days in the car because his parents forget him. "This is not being done because parents wanted to forget about it."
He added that children are vulnerable to an increase in temperature and can easily suffer from heatstroke. "The human body can maintain a constant body temperature of around 36.5 to 37, regardless of the ambient temperature. If the ambient temperature is too low, the body has mechanisms to generate heat and maintain its temperature at these levels. If the temperature is too high, the body has mechanisms to eliminate the temperature in order to keep it within normal limits."
He pointed out that if an organism is exposed to extreme temperatures, then the organism ceases to have this ability and slowly the organism falls into multiple organ failure and death occurs. "Children are much more vulnerable than adults. They have less ability to sweat and because their body surface area is much larger in relation to their body volume."
Dr. Hatzipanagis underlined that a parked car with a temperature of 33 degrees will reach 15 degrees within 50 minutes. "We should never leave children alone in the car. Many believe that children die of suffocation. Nothing to do with. No vehicle is airtight so that someone dies of suffocation."
Source: Sigmalive