HURRICANE -- An 11-month old girl found "unresponsive" and not breathing after authorities said she was left inside a hot vehicle in Hurricane on Friday afternoon has died.
Hurricane City Police Sgt. Brandon Buell said detectives talked to several people and determined the girl was left in her car seat "for a substantial period of time with the vehicle not running," and that the situation involved a family member.
"The Medical Examiner's Office will be conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death," Buell wrote. "This is still an active and ongoing investigation."
Several Hurricane City Police officers rushed to the child's aid after she was located near 50 E. 480 North at approximately 1:07 p.m..
"Upon arrival, they found the infant was not breathing and CPR was being performed," Buell wrote. "Paramedics arrived on scene and tended to the infant."
A Life Flight helicopter was launched shortly after from Dixie Regional Medical Center.
Officers met members of the Life Flight crew at Hurricane Middle School where the child was taken by air back to DRMC in "extreme critical condition," Buell wrote.
She died a short time later.
"This incident is very tragic and our hearts go out to those involved, especially the family," Buell wrote. "We are saddened at the death of this infant child, and our condolences go out to the family. The temperature in a vehicle can rise substantially very quickly, which makes it a very dangerous situation."
When the infant was found, outside temperatures were approximately 93 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
According to The Weather Channel, a car's interior temperature reaches approximately 109 degrees within 10 minutes when the outside temperature is 90 degrees.
Within 20 minutes, the internal temperature reaches 119 degrees, and in 30 minutes, the vehicle reaches approximately 124 degrees.
Faraz Norozian, a Sunrise Children's Hospital (Las Vegas) pediatric critical care attending physician, said children are at higher risk of dying after being left in a vehicle because "children have a greater surface area to body mass ratio than adults."
"Babies' brains are not fully developed — the neurons are not fully functional until about 2, 3, or 4 years of age," Norozian said. "You do have a little thermostat in their brain that isn't fully developed, so, one, they lose heat faster and, two, they don't have a thermo-regulatory system that is fully functional."
Norozian said the body "doesn't function as well" as the internal body temperature increases.
"Just about every organ can be affected," Norozian said. "(Children) basically lose consciousness, and once they do, they obviously can't address the problem, so it gets worse and worse and worse. They get muscle cramps, dizziness, headaches, fatigue and weakness, and they just kind of lose consciousness. At that point there's confusion and stupor and so on. They're obviously sweating quite a bit, so they're losing water and basically become extremely dehydrated, which can lead to muscle breakdown and other problems."
Norozian said there isn't an exact time frame where a child will lose consciousness and their body will begin to fail after being left in a vehicle.
"Even leaving 30 or 40 minutes leaves them at risk," Norozian said. "This is something that's rare but completely preventable, and the only way to be able to prevent it is just to educate, educate and educate."
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