Toddler Dead After Mother Leaves Her For Hours In Hot Car

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In Oregon, Portland, a toddler died after being left alone in a hot car while her mother went to work as a family nurse practitioner, authorities said on Friday.

Nicole Engler, 38, of Roseburg said to investigators that she thought she had taken her 21-month-old daughter Remington to daycare before heading to work, court documents indicate.

Instead, Engler completed her shift at 4 p.m. and found the toddler in the back seat — unconscious and blue, authorities said.

Engler reportedly then rushed the toddler back into the medical facility, where staff performed CPR until an ambulance arrived. 

The child was then pronounced dead Thursday at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg.

The temperature was about 80 degrees in the area when the child was found in the car.

On a day that warm, it is estimated that the temperature inside a vehicle can rise to 109 degrees within 20 minutes, according to a National Safety Council report.

Engler was booked into Douglas County Jail on the suspicion of second-degree manslaughter. Court records have not listed an attorney to speak on the woman’s behalf.

Police Sgt. Gary Klopfenstein said that the department had no comment beyond what was in public documents.

Pediatric vehicular heatstroke has killed 742 children between 1998 and 2017, the safety council found. The average age of victims was just 21 months.

In 54% of the cases, the parent or caregiver unknowingly left the youngster in a vehicle. This generally happened when the caregiver was especially tired or there was a change in routine, the authors of the report noted.

In a 2014 case in the same area, prosecutors decided not to file criminal charges against an engineer whose daughter had died after he forgot she was in the back seat when he arrived at work. 

Prosecuters determined it was a “tragic and unintentional accident.”