10-Month-Old Baby In Portugal Dies After Being Forgotten In Hot Car For 7 Hours

In an unfortunate incident, a 10-month-old baby in Portugal died after her father mistakenly left her in the car all day in 26°C heat, Metro reported. The child's father, a lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology NOVA University, drove the car to within 100 meters of the campus creche at 8 a.m. on September 12. He was supposed to drop his daughter off at the nursery before going to work.

However, he did not take his daughter in as usual, and went straight to his office, as per a Portuguese daily newspaper.

More than seven hours later, the lecturer returned to his car and was left shocked to find his daughter unconscious in the back seat. He did everything to revive her, but the child was unresponsive. Emergency services were called, who tried to resuscitate her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The parents, including her girl's mother who reached the spot same time as emergency responders, have been offered psychological support.

Notably, the temperature in the area on Tuesday was around 26°C meaning they would easily have reached 50ºC inside the car. 

Investigators believe that the baby girl was asleep and her father simply forgot she was in the car. Autopsy results are yet to be released and are not expected to be made public.

In a similar incident in July, an 18-month-old baby girl died after being left in a hot car overnight following a Fourth of July party. According to CNN, the child was left alone in the car from around 3 a.m. until around 11 a.m., when the heat index was 105 degrees. The couple was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.