Toddler dies after being left in locked car in Beersheba

3-year-old passes away despite efforts by MDA to resuscitate him; reports suggest toddler entered car, locked himself in.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
MDA Ambulance (photo credit: WIkicommons)
MDA Ambulance
(photo credit: WIkicommons)
A three-year-old boy left in his parents’ car in Beersheba’s searing heat for hours died on Sunday afternoon despite efforts by Magen David Adom paramedics to resuscitate him.
Initial reports suggest the toddler, the only son of Ethiopian immigrants, was not left by parents in the car but entered the car himself and was unable to get out.
It was the fourth death of a child left in a vehicle over the past five weeks, and a number of others in the same circumstances -- including twins in Nazareth – have this summer been rescued from death at the last minute.
At 4.51 p.m., MDA was alerted about the child in a vehicle parked near the immigrant absorption center in Rehov Hatzadik Miyerushalyim in the city.
A whole rescue team arrived. Shimon Zaguri of MDA, who arrived quickly, said he found a four-year-old boy unconscious and not breathing and lacking a pulse as he sat in the car.
Paramedic Hanan Rosolio said the team performed advance lifesaving activities, including the giving of drugs. heart massage and resuscitation, but to no avail. They continued to carry out resuscitation on the way to Soroka Medical Center, but his death was determined there. Family members were taken with him to the hospital.
The vehicle was not equipped with a sticker to remind the driver and adult passengers never to leave a child alone in a vehicle. Over half-a-million such stickers, to be affixed to the inside of the driver’s door, have been distributed by United Hatzalah in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, English and Yiddish to families around the country.