The Vulnerability of Children

Failing Children's Needs; Lacking Due Diligence

Family and friends attend a funeral for a two-year-old Milton, Ont., boy who died of heat-related causes after being left inside a car last week. The boy's maternal grandmother has been criminally charged in the death. (Linda Ward/CBC)

"He was a boy who loved to talk about birds in the sky and whales in the water. He was a boy who would always pick a flower for his parents whenever he saw one."

He was a very little boy, not quite two years of age. His name was Maximus Huyskens; 'Max' his diminutive. And the loving phrase above was written by his grieving parents, appearing in an obituary notice.

A traditional Catholic mass was held for his funeral. A small white casket containing his remains before the altar. "We come here to share the sorrow with the parents, Marcus and Tamara. To show our support for them in their deep loss. The death of Maximus seems so senseless, so wasteful and so inconsistent with all we know", Reverend Peter Tuyen Nguyen said in sorrow for the family, during the mass.

This is a life-taking event that will forever diminish the quality of life of everyone related to the Huyskens family. Above all, it will cast an eternity of bleak, yawningly empty sorrow over the lives of the child's parents, his siblings and their extended family.

Children are not meant to die before they reach their second birthday, not in a country like Canada with all the advantages of economic, social and political stability, educational facilities and universal health coverage. But it does happen when accidents occur. Including when children have been  inadvertently placed in harm's way.

There is, according to a spokesperson at the Canada Safety Council, an estimated average of four to six deaths per year in Canada, attributable to children being left alone in a vehicle on hot summer days, where they asphyxiate from heat exhaustion. This is not a societal problem exclusive to Canada; it occurs anywhere the combination of children, cars and weather exist; anywhere in he world.

But it is in Canada where in the last week three children have died from extreme heat conditions, left to their own devices while distracted parents take their attention elsewhere. In Maximus Huyskens' case, it was his 51-year-old grandmother who had momentarily suffered a lapse, evidently forgetting his presence in the driveway of her home, left in a car.

She did not appear at the child's funeral. And the reason is obvious enough. Although her daughter may at some point forgive her forgetful mother, as a grandmother whose distraction led to the death of a grandchild, she will never forgive herself She will remain afflicted throughout her life with the tragic memory of the child whom her lapse in attention failed.

Ironically, the grandmother is deaf. During the funeral ceremony an interpreter translated the service into sign language. She was not present to take advantage of that courtesy. Nothing will ever now suffice to give her satisfaction in life. In her grief she will now also have to face a charge of criminal negligence in the death of her grandson.

Even as the funeral for the little boy took place, a three-year-old girl who had been left in a hot car in Edmonton died in hospital. That child's mother had no idea how her little girl managed to get inside the family SUV, parked in the driveway of their home. The little girl had been playing in front of her home with other children.

Tsi-Tsi Chitekedza, who died Tuesday in Edmonton

"It's a horrible tragedy obviously for the family. It's very difficult for the first responders ... and it's just another tragic reminder, we don't want to keep saying things over and over again -- but when it's sweltering hot outside, we need to make sure the kids are not anywhere near a vehicle", said Staff Sgt. Scott Jones at a news conference.

A day after Maximus Huyskens had been found, police in Markham, Ontario just outside Toronto converged on a commercial parking lot where they pried up a car window to rescue a two-year-old girl left inside a sweltering car. The child's mother was arrested for child abandonment, the child taken to hospital to ensure she would recover from her ordeal.

And on Wednesday police were called to South Edmonton Common where they found three children left unattended in a vehicle. Three little boys, ages six, three and 23 months were left unattended inside a parked vehicle. Their mother was charged with three counts of wilfully causing a child to be in need of intervention under the province's Child and Youth Family Enhancement Act.

The autopsy conducted in Maximus Huyskens' death confirmed investigators' belief his death was caused by exposure to high-level temperatures over an "extended period of time".

MEDICAL

• Heatstroke occurs when a person's temperature exceeds 104 degrees F and their thermoregulatory mechanism is  overwhelmed
  -  Symptoms include :  dizziness, disorientation, agitation, confusion, sluggishness, seizure, hot dry skin that is flushed but not sweaty, loss of consciousness, rapid heart beat, hallucinations
• A core body temperature of 107 degrees F is considered lethal as cells are damaged and internal organs shut down 
• Children's thermoregulatory systems are not as efficient as an adult's and their body temperatures warm at a rate 3 to 5 times faster than an adult’s.

VEHICLE HEATING DYNAMICS

The atmosphere and the windows of a car are relatively “transparent” to the sun’s shortwave radiation (yellow in figure below) and are warmed little.  However this shortwave energy does heat objects that it strikes.  For example, a dark dashboard or seat can easily reach temperatures in the range of 180 to over 200 degrees F.

These objects (e.g., dashboard, steering wheel, childseat) heat the adjacent air by conduction and convection and also give off longwave radiation (red) which is very efficient at warming the air trapped inside a vehicle.