I know, this is Actually Infuriating, but … Also she didn’t just leave the now-dead kid in the car, she left two in there to die, but one survived. My guess: with brain damage. “Always Beautiful Medical Spa” FFS. Duck lips were totally worth it.
A baby died after his mother left him and his 2-year-old sibling inside a car while she was getting lip filler at a Bakersfield medical spa on a 101-degree day, authorities said.
It is estimated that Hernandez’s children were in the vehicle without air-conditioning for 90 minutes, wrote Det. Kyle McNabb, noting that the internal temperature of a car can rise to a blistering 143 degrees in just one hour of 100-degree weather.
Hernandez told police she found her baby foaming at the mouth and having an apparent seizure after emerging from her procedure at Always Beautiful Medical Spa, according to the police report. She frantically dialed 911, and both her children were transported to a hospital for treatment.
By the time her 1-year-old arrived at Adventist Health hospital, he wasn’t breathing, had no pulse, his lips were blue, and he had an internal body temperature of 107.2 degrees
Bakersfield is a conservative shit show
jesus christ, the mother was fucking 20, and she was allowed to take the children into the lobby but opted out of it.
she blatently knew and asked about her options and chose the one with the highest risk.
wait… the staff KNEW?
Fuck them too.
they knew she had children, but im not completely aware she asked the day of the appointment or not. its completely possible she asked when booking the appointment on a different day. its just at some point the establishment was asked.
edit: it mentions earlier in the day. so there was no guarantee that the staff KNEW the kids were out there during the appointment, but knew she had kids.
whether they knew she took them with her for the appointment is a different question thats yet to be answered
Highest risk? Death was almost guaranteed in this case.
its only guaranteed because of the amount of time the surgery took in the end. if it was shorter, it would have been averted. (say if it eas hour 10 or 20, would have been still negligent but they would probably be alive. the actual time was double that)
basically there was a chain of decisions and events that led to the deaths, but she still chose the one where the worst outcome was potentially death.
She did leave the car running, but it shut off after an hour.
It’s still super negligent to leave a 1 and 2 year old alone in public for 2.5h, regardless of the weather.
Well the conditioning part of the air turned off when the engine turned off. The police reported the air was still going but warm when they arrived. Meaning she murdered her child and will likely get off with some kind of child neglegence charge.
She deserves worse, but honestly I can’t see a judge thinking she won’t have already received punishment by losing her child.
Murder requires intent. Her intent was that the car would be running the whole time she was in the appointment. She wasn’t aware the car would shut off after an hour running in park.
That makes it negligent manslaughter.
I understand you just mean the term murder has legal definitions that vary. In California it may fall under this second section.
"Sentencing for Involuntary Manslaughter: Involuntary manslaughter, under Penal Code Section 192(b), involves causing a death without intent to kill, often through reckless or negligent actions. It differs from voluntary manslaughter by focusing on the lack of malice and intent. The law penalizes those whose careless conduct results in fatal outcomes.
Involuntary manslaughter is typically classified as a felony, with potential imprisonment ranging from two to four years. The court considers the defendant’s conduct and case circumstances, including the degree of negligence and foreseeability of harm. Restitution to the victim’s family for economic losses is often required, emphasizing the broader impact of the offense. Probation may be considered for first-time offenders or cases with mitigating circumstances."
she should have read her cars manual, and if thr manual didn’t cover the cars anti-features Toyota should be punished
Gonna assume that’s a joke??
The kids died because the engine auto shut off, so it’s actually an interesting question as to whether the manufacturer bears responsibility for having implemented a ‘feature’ dangerously.
Leaving a baby in a car for 90 minutes is neglect and dangerous no matter what features that car had.
I agree. But that doesn’t really address the issue under discussion
It does though. Leaving the baby in the car is the issue. The car manufacturer can’t be responsible for someone being a horrible parent, no matter if their manual said not to leave a baby in the car or not. It’s common sense not to do that.
Tragedy is not usually due to a single cause. Multiple failures have to happen for a tragedy to occur. In this case, the mum left them unattended, and the manufacturer implemented a feature in a dangerous way. It should have been obvious in the design phase that this was a risk, to pets if nothing else. The solution is also well known, there have been groups lobbying to make occupant sensors standard for literally decades. That they implemented one without the other is arguably corporate negligence for nothing more than extremely minor cost savings.
car manufacturers should inform the users about features that are potentially unintuitive and different from previous cars (let’s say all features that weren’t commonplace 2-3 decades ago)
Now the 20-year-old mother has been charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and two felony counts of willful cruelty to a child, according to court records.
Is it not a specific crime in California/US to leave a child locked in a car?? We don’t fluff around with that in Australia. Also have exceptions to property damage laws for bystanders breaking windows.
Initial charges are just to justify holding a person, more charges can always be added later when the prosecutor has taken more time to examine the case.
If leaving a child in a car was a crime, you’d think they’d charge that up front?
Most criminal laws are at the state level so it would be a CA law.
UNATTENDED CHILD IN MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY ACT
There is no need for a seperate law in the event of harm or death since that would just fall under existing harm/death of a child laws.
It likely is going to fall under child neglect. I don’t know of an actual law specifically for locking a kid in a car.
As for the exceptions thing, that is the same in the states, it usually falls under law(s) categorized as “Good Samaritan laws”. They are moreso meant to protect the bystander if they see someone in peril but, breaking the window to save a kid or pet that is clearly in distress would normally fall under that. Personal injury also usually fall under these laws, like if you accidentally injured someone getting them to safety (like after a car accident) when it was clear they were in a dangerous location, it helps relieve the bystander liability.
It’s also supposed to be the reason that EMS/Fire/Police have Qualified immunity. because when the call to action arises, you don’t want your first responders first thought to be “How will this negatively affect me” you want it to be “how can I do the most in this situation”
Reading news like this always breaks my heart because I can’t imagine the kid’s suffering before they died. Hugging my little ones a little tighter today 😓
Unfortunately this is a pretty common occurrence. There was a big furor about it about a decade ago with a social media fad called the “hot car challenge” where adults would sit in hot cars turned off in the sun to see how long they could last in them ostensibly to build awareness of the problem, and there were all sorts of helpful tips and design changes made to cars and phones to try to make it more difficult to forget your kids in hot cars. Myself I wonder if any of it had any actual impact because surely the sort of people who leave their kids in hot cars aren’t the smartest and probably don’t keep up with safety PSAs about the issue.
The left shoe trick - throwing my shoe in the car next to the kid - probably saved my kid’s life more than once.
One kind of parents who have these tragedies are tired ones. Which is most parents with small children.
Edit: not relevant in this case, but I’ll take any chance to advertise the shoe trick.
As a parent myself it always boggles my mind that people can forget that they have kids in the car with them. I’m always in dad mode when I have any kids with me, so I’ve never even come close to forgetting a kid in the car. Forgetting to grab the kid’s backpack for school sure, but forgetting a whole child in the car?
I mean I’ve left the house without my glasses and I’m legally blind without them, so I can understand just how absentminded a human can get.
That’s the thing. We non-absent-minded people cannot relate to how absent-minded people can be. We do not understand.
I felt the same, until I had my first lousy sleeper (child who had trouble sleeping due to minor health stuff). After a month of lost sleep, I couldn’t remember my own name sometimes. I read once that sleep deprivation is effectively brain damage, and after that experience, I believe it.
The biggest thing that most of those people have in common is that they think it couldn’t happen to them.
Before I had kids I would’ve been right there with you, but I am in a completely different mindspace anytime I’m caring for my kids than when I’m not.
When I’m in “dad mode” there’s a significant portion of my attention that’s constantly running through “Are the kids getting into trouble? When did I last see them? When were they last fed/watered/potty breaks? Are we about to pass something that they’ll see and decide they need to go to and therefore cost more time/money than I’ve budgeted for this trip and should I be taking a different route to avoid it? When did I last observe the kids alive, has it been more than 60 seconds I need to check on them again…” And the only way to break out of dad mode is if somebody else has taken over active care/monitoring of the kids or if the kids are both asleep in their beds. It’s a biological state that I seriously did not know was possible, and I simply can’t turn it off.
So when I say I can’t forget my kids in the car, this is what I mean, I’m so actively aware of my kids location and status at all times that I’m the primary caretaker that they can’t even try to wander off in a park or store without my noticing
Yeah, I’ve got that too. But confidence leads to complacency. I’ve thankfully never had it happen when it mattered, but on a couple of occasions I’ve found myself not being hypervigilant when I normally would be. It’s back on once I notice, but it only takes one slip up.
Most of these cases also involve a change in routine. You go about your normal day, feeling the way you normally do, because your mind has forgotten that something is different. Trusting your instinct to overcome that just isn’t a foolproof plan. I mean there is no foolproof plan, but there’s also no harm in taking a little extra precaution in your routine like putting your shoe or your wallet in the back seat.
confidence leads to complacency
I find that after having kids and seeing on the news what can go wrong, there is zero confidence in the kids or their surroundings. That’s why I have confidence in myself that I would never forget them, because I’m always scared. 😆 Never let them out of my sight on a parking lot, e.g. They will just start running and you need to wrangle and holler. Hold their hand over a cross walk, etc etc etc.
The thing is, I have two kids, and have heard about hot car deaths for years before having kids, so I make sure it doesn’t happen. I never leave the kids alone in the car on a hot day. They come with. Luckily we have cold weather most of the year so they can sit alone for a few minutes in a cold car, but never during the summer. Like, even before hearing about hot car deaths, I knew from a young age that cars get hot, and it’s just common sense not to leave a child in there, because I wouldn’t want to sit in there myself for any amount of time. Doesn’t matter if the AC is on full blast, that thing might cut out or fail for any reason, and then my kids are goners.
It depends how often you drive without the kids.
If you don’t always drop the kids off yourself, it’s easy to get half way to work on autopilot before realising you meant to drop them off.
Sleep deprivation is a weird thing.
I’ve been fucking tired as all hell, but a) I would not be driving a car with my child in it if I was so tired that I would forget I had a child. The fuck? That’s it. There’s no b). I would also fall asleep before I would forget I had a child. I cannot believe people really need a “trick” to help them remember they have a child. I just cannot relate.
a) I would not be driving a car with my child in it if I was so tired that I would forget I had a child. The fuck?
I hope you’re thankful for a lifestyle where you have that option. We should all strive to build a world where everyone does.
I mean, taking the bus should be an option in most cases, or? Maybe I’m inconsiderate right now?
In most US cities, no, it’s not an option. But we should work to make it an option :)
In most cities in the US? That’s crazy to me as a European lol. I guess I was acting privileged then.
Nah, you good. There’s no way for you to know without way too much time investment.
New York, San Francisco, and maybe Chicago have workable systems. Atlanta’s right on the edge, I would say. San Francisco seemed the best by far, but it still wasn’t perfect. It also helps that San Francisco is tiny. I haven’t been to Seattle or Portland, though. Maybe those are better
The smaller cities have super trash transit, mostly because they’re too spread out
Plenty of place don’t have buses in the states
This article is worth a read. I think that anyone who says “I could NEVER…” are the exact people that are playing with fire. I don’t have children, but I still get anxiety thinking about what would happen if I did and any number of variables came up at the wrong moment in time.
This is not an attack on you. This article really helped me understand a situation where it isn’t some irresponsible person just leaving their kids alone for hours to get Botox assuming the car will stay on and cool. Humans are humans, and it’s sickening and devastating to think about how a simple mistake, a hiccup in the brain, could lead to the death of your own child.
Great article and one I always share when this argument comes up. It can happen with one simple mistake.
I wish I could read it—it’s paywalled. 😞
Plenty of smart parents fuck up while sleep deprived. That’s what made it such a popular tragedy to make PSAs about.
After having kids I totally understand how it can happen by mistake.
As a parent myself, I’m now doubly amazed at how few cases of forgetting happen. It’s so easy to do, and your brain is reduced to blomonge by sleep deprivation.
FYI, the “baby on board” signs aren’t generally meant as “don’t crash into me” signs, but “assume the driver is drunk and distracted” signs. Having been there, I try and give them plenty of space!
Lol
it must be on purpose at this point. how many times does this need to happen before people stop doing it?
Are you under the impression that every hot car death is caused by the same person?
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The car was left on but shut itself off after an hour. This lady was extremely negligent to leave her super young children alone for that long, but she wasn’t leaving them in a hot car.
Pic of her here, apparently taken from FB.
She killed one of her kids, and would have killed two, in order to get an anus on her face.
But then, who wouldn’t? Priorities, priorities.
“The car was parked in a space facing west during the hottest part of the day.”
Hernandez was getting a lip filler procedure at the Always Beautiful Med Spa Sunday, according to reports. Those same reports say she didn’t check on her children until two and a half hours later.
“In a normal person, it’s not gonna happen,” said Gricelda Anaya.
Anaya works next door and saw people scrambling into the building to try to save the boys.
“What we see on the camera is that they’re trying to put cold water right here on the reception, and it was something very sad that never had to happen.”
Those scrambling people are probably going to have some kind of PTSD now too.
Oh and Dad’s in prison for some other unspecified reason.
Is this mildly infuriating? No. This is a joke comm, not a group cry.
grrr, im so mildly infuriated rn
Almost anyone can have children, but not everyone can be a parent.
One of my more controversial views is that having children should require a permit, like adoption currently requires, you’d need proof that you are able and willing to raise a child in the environment they deserve to be raised in.
Yes I realize what the downsides would be.
Personally, I think that’s the wrong approach. We’re very individualistic in the states and that leads to thinking that each child is the responsibility of their parent(s) and no one else, but if we had a more communal approach to raising children and acknowledged their wellbeing is a collective responsibility perhaps this could have been prevented. There’s a lot of personal dysfunction in this story, but that’s exactly the kind of thing that community can make up for.
We should have well funded and robust childcare services so that people who aren’t responsible enough to take care of children have something to lean on. In a sane society one person dropping the ball shouldn’t result in a child’s death. Does having a communal place where children are well cared for without the need for payment really defy the imagination? In a nation where we can’t even provide basic healthcare perhaps it defies expectation, but we will never achieve what we can’t imagine.
So have you ever heard of eugenics?
and by etymology it is good
I’ve seen that as a bit by a comedian before as well.
Fuck
Me reading this article:
Huh, California?
Oh, Bakersfield. Say no more
Yeah, I had to do some work up there recently and it was so depressing.
