Safe Kids Blog: Some might find hyperthermia a laughing matter, but to us it is serious business. 20 kids have already died this year!

Posted by: Kyle Johnson at Jul 06, 2010 12:00 AM CDT

Keywords: Education, Parents, Safety Tips

| Send This | Article Link | Comments(1)

As you may have heard, last Friday Safe Kids USA got the dubious honor of being chosen as "The Soup's Clip of the Week" (the time code for the specific clip runs from 20:42-21:22) View clip. Especially with record heat waves sweeping most of the nation, Safe Kids USA welcomes the increased attention about not leaving kids unattended in vehicles.

However, in search of a laugh "The Soup" neglected to mention that there were a record number of child deaths (20) from hyperthermia in the first six months of 2010, and the week of June 13-19 saw seven deaths – another record. Since 1998, 228 children have died because they were "forgotten" in a vehicle by a caregiver.

While we can't endorse Joel McHale's suggestion that parents leave a running chainsaw in their backseat, we do welcome additional suggestions as to how to help prevent hyperthermia injuries to children.

To help you get started, here are a few already suggested by Safe Kids USA:

Dial 911 immediately if you see an unattended child in a car. EMS professionals are trained to determine if a child is in trouble.

Set your cell phone or Blackberry reminder to be sure you dropped your child off at day care.

Have a plan that if your child is late for daycare that you will be called within a few minutes. Be especially careful if you change your routine for dropping off little kids at day care.

Teach children not to play in any vehicle.

Lock all vehicle doors and trunk after everyone has exited the vehicle - especially at home. Keep keys out of children’s reach. Cars are not playgrounds or babysitters.

The complete Safe Kids USA video - from which "The Soup" lifted its sound bite - as well as the complete current list of tips from Safe Kids USA can be viewed here.

Read a moving article about the impact of hyperthermia deaths on families, read Gene Weingarten's 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning story.

Best,
Kyle Johnson
Safe Kids USA Communications

Comment on this Blog Post:

Posted by Wanda Willis at: July 8, 2010

I have worked in Injury Prevention for over 20 years and I still cannot believe how many people believe that injuries are what happen to other people. If the people who write "The Soup" was ever at the scene of an incident where a mother or father has lost a child maybe they would re-think making this a laughing matter. This is exactly why all of us n injury prevention continue to push our safety messages. People have to be educated on how to be safe because they obviously don't take it seriously.