An Illinois mother has been arrested after her 1-month-old son died from “severe” hyperthermia and dehydration after being left in a hot car for an “extended period of time,” authorities said.
Andrea Lunsford, 25, was charged with endangering the health and life of a child after the newborn baby was found dead around 7pm on Monday. Peoria Police Department.
An autopsy revealed that the baby, named as Grayson Lunceford, had been left in the car for an “extended period of time” without food, water or air conditioning. WCBU reported.
Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood said it was difficult to determine exactly how long little Grayson had been left in the pickup truck, but authorities said He told KBTX He was left in the car for more than four hours.
On September 16th, the daytime high temperature was 90 degrees and the low was 59 degrees. According to Weather.com.
Before police arrived, the baby had been removed from a pickup truck by its grandfather and placed in the yard, and Harwood said the baby had been dead for “quite some time” by the time they arrived.
“This is also a preventable death,” Harwood said, according to WBCU.
“If you leave an infant or a child in a car in this heat for even a short time, the outcome is what we're seeing today — a one-month-old baby who died because he was in a car with no air conditioning, no ventilation, no nutrition or hydration.”
The coroner determined that Grayson died as a result of “gross neglect resulting from severe hyperthermia and severe dehydration.” The Kansas City Star reported..
Harwood urged parents to remember that babies' bodies cannot tolerate being left alone in a car for long periods of time.
“We need to remember that it's not just infants, but adults can also develop hyperthermia and dehydration,” Harwood said, according to WCBU reports.
“Unfortunately, this happens much sooner in infants due to their body surface area, constitution and fragility during infancy.”
