A boy dying from a heat stroke as a result of being left unattended in a car is featured in The Sun News. Three year old Andrew Leighlan Calloway was pronounced dead as a result of being left in a parked car. Calloway was with his babysitter, Sheila Henderson, Henderson's sister and two other children on a lunch outing. Upon their return they exited the vehicle and it took Henderson an hour to realize that Calloway was not in the house and went out to the car to find him unconscious and called 911. Calloway's father arrived to pick him up and found the day care roped off with crime scene tape. Calloway's father was notified by police at the scene that his son was left in a car, lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital.
I was both saddened and angered by this story. I am sad for the child and his family and angry that this completely unavoidable, careless incident occurred.
When I first saw the headline I assumed it was another irresponsible parent leaving their child in a hot car but was surprised to find it was a day care provider. As if it wasn't bad enough that the child was left in the car but it took the day care an entire hour to realize the child wasn't in the house. The article stated that Calloway was on a lunch outing with two adults and two other children. Two adults left the day care with three children, took three children out to eat and returned from lunch with three children yet only two children were brought inside the day care. How does the third child get forgotten? Not just forgotten for a short period of time, but for an hour by two adults who were paid and trusted to care for this child. I feel terrible for this poor father who returned from work to pick up his son and was informed that the people he trusted to care for his son left him in a hot car for an hour where he lost consciousness, then was taken to the hospital only to find out he never regained consciousness.
I can't help but to speculate about the reasons why this day care only had a city business license but was not licensed by the state as a day care, perhaps they were avoiding it or even possibly got denied. I am appalled at the carelessness of this so called day care and hope that incidents like this can be avoided in the future, perhaps by installing some sort of safety feature in vehicles driven by forgetful, irresponsible morons to remind them they have a child in the car.
Agreed! This is so wrong, and we here of it way too often. What were they doing that had them so distracted, and why? People need to take this more seriously. They need to take children and the care of them more seriously. I worked at a daycare for a short time after my second child, and it was a very reputable daycare. But let me tell you I would never send my kids to it. We were blessed to find an individual that was the babysitter for our children for 12 years. She was so awesome, and still is. I never had to worry about them when they were with her, she was family and she loved my kids. I couldn't take my kids somewhere where they were just business to someone. But most parents don't have many other options.
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