Hot Car Death: 2-Year-Old Dies Of Apparent Heat Stroke In California

A search warrant was issued by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department child abuse unit at the home of a 2-year-old boy who was found unresponsive in a scorching hot car outside his house July 7 and later declared dead.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said the child was not breathing when police was called to the house Saturday evening. The boy was then taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead.

"It is unknown how long the child was in the vehicle or exactly how the child came to be in the vehicle," the department said, ABC reported.

Shaun Hampton with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said, "Other folks that were there performed life saving measures, CPR and other stuff to try to cool the child and bring him back. But unfortunately those efforts were unsuccessful.”

The temperature reached a high of 98 degrees on Saturday and remained in 90s till evening.

A neighbour said many children live at the home with their single mother.

"You know, coming out (in) the street and running down the street and next thing I know I get to looking and damn, where the parents? And next thing I know, I see someone running out and grab the baby," Joe Richards, another neighbour said.

“The death of this child is believed to be heat related but the final cause of death will be determined by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office,” Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said in a press release.

"We're trying to put all the statements together with witness statements and information we've obtained from the scene,” Hampton said.

No arrests have been made for far.

Dr. Arthur Jey, an emergency room physician at Sutter Hospital said, "We've seen a lot in the last few days, the last few weeks or so.”

"Their head is actually bigger relative to their body. They don't dissipate heat the way we do. And, they can't tell you as well they are getting too hot,” Jey said, adding heat stroke can easily kill a child especially inside a car.

In June, a 9-month-old baby died after she was left in a hot pickup truck by her parents in Texas. The parents returned home with three children and when they did not see the child for almost an hour, they went searching and found her lying unresponsive inside the hot truck.

The baby was immediately taken to hospital but was declared dead.

Spokeswoman from the Harris County sheriff's office said both the parents thought the other had removed the child from the truck, PopSugar reported.

She added the child’s death serves as a reminder to parents that when it comes to transporting children, particularly in summer, they need to ensure all the kids have been removed from the vehicle.