Why we do what we do

On October 19, 2004 the most beautiful boy in the world was born to me. After 15 hours of labor and finally with a little help which came in the form of a c-section… Christian Charles LaCombe was born at 5:03pm. He weighed all of 7lbs 12 ounces and was 20 inches long. From the very beginning he was independent… He wouldn’t hold my finger as other children often do, he insisted on doing things on his own.

On August 13, 2008 my three year old son, Christian, died after my mother mistakenly forgot to drop him off at daycare… He spent 10hours in the car, ultimately succumbing to hyperthermia.

Many people have spoken up, stating how horrible it is and “how can someone forget.” The answer is simple: It doesn’t take much. It has happened to school principals, rocket scientists, social workers, and nurses. People our society normally views as the most responsible people we have. The majority of them have never been in any kind of legal trouble… and it can happen to you.

It can take something as small as a change in your everyday routine, a miscommunication with a spouse, or a moment when you are thinking about the stresses of your day. If you have ever found yourself driving to one place and suddenly realized you were driving to another and you don’t remember when you made the change in your course. There are times when even a normal person’s memory will fail them.

Article: Forgotten Baby Syndrome

Memory and Brain Expert Addresses Federal Government on “Forgotten Baby Syndrome” to help prevent hot car tragedies
Federal government steps up efforts to prevent child deaths in hot vehicles

Tampa, FLA. – Sept. 23, 2011….Children continue to die in hot vehicles – and parents and families across the country endure the worst nightmare imaginable. Yet, most parents still think it could never happen to them.

Dr. David Diamond, professor at the University of South Florida department of psychology; and research career scientist at J.A. Haley Veterans Hospital, spoke out today at a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) event in Tampa to help prevent families from having to endure the life-long grief of losing a child.
There have been at least 27 child vehicular heat stroke fatalities in the U.S. this year, and one of those deaths took place in Florida.…we hope that is the last child death in a hot car,” states Janette Fennell, president of KidsAndCars.org a national nonprofit child safety organization working to prevent injuries and deaths of children in and around motor vehicles. A tragic record 49 children died in 2010 in hot vehicles. Since 1990 KidsAndCars.org has documented over 600 child vehicular heat stroke fatalities and 60 of those deaths took place in the state of Florida, placing Florida second only to Texas in the number of children losing their lives in this way.
An internationally renowned memory and brain expert, Diamond asks, “How can normal, loving and attentive parents, with no evidence of substance abuse or an organic brain disorder, have a lapse of memory which results in the death of a child?” His research group has developed a two-part hypothesis to address the basis of “Forgotten Baby Syndrome” (FBS). First, they evaluated whether there is a consistent pattern of circumstances that may provide insight into FBS occurrences and, second, they speculated on the neurobiological basis of FBS.
Diamond hypothesizes that FBS occurs as a result of the competition between cognitive and habit forms of memory. Cognitive memory occurs when one consciously plans out a task to accomplish in the future, for example, planning to take a child to daycare as a part of a larger driving plan. In contrast, habit memory occurs when one performs a routine that can be completed automatically with minimal thought, such as driving to work in an “autopilot” mode, in which decisions as to where to stop and turn occur automatically.
Brain habit and cognitive systems are in a constant state of competition, Diamond notes. In all cases of FBS he and his associates studied, the caretakers had every intention to stop at the daycare center as a part of their drive. However, stopping at the day care center on the day FBS occurred was not a part of an established daily routine. With FBS, the brain habit-based memory system suppressed the activation of the cognitive memory to interrupt the drive and take the child to daycare.

Diamond also noted that in some FBS cases the parents experienced impaired sleep the night before, and/or they experienced a powerful stressor during the drive, which suppressed the activation of a cognitive memory. Dr. Diamond concludes that “the brain habit memory system has the capacity to completely suppress the cognitive memory system, thereby providing a neurobiological explanation of how FBS can occur.”

NHTSA brought together local safety advocates, health professionals, law enforcement officials and concerned residents today to discuss ways to prevent the modern-day phenomena of children being unknowingly left alone in vehicles and how to prevent children from gaining access to hot vehicles.

“The KidsAndCars.org message is very clear – Never leave a child alone in a vehicle and don’t think a tragedy like this can’t happen to you or someone you know,” said Fennell. “No one is immune.”
The organization is pleased that Ron Medford, NHTSA deputy administrator, is spearheading efforts in Florida to eliminate child deaths in hot vehicles by 2013.
KidsAndCars.org has incorporated a provision as part of the reauthorization of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which could help prevent these inadvertent deaths. Equipping vehicles with sensors to detect the presence of the child and sound a warning when a child is left inside would help prevent these deaths when the driver’s memory fails. Similar warning features currently remind drivers when they have left the key in the ignition or left the headlights on.
Based on incidents documented by KidsAndCars.org:
54 percent of the time children die after being unknowingly left inside a hot vehicle similar to what happened to Payton McKinnon.
32 percent when children got into a vehicle on their own
12 percent when they were knowingly left in vehicle.
2 percent of the circumstances were not clear.

Safety Tips from KidsAndCars.org

KidsAndCars.org provides the BE SAFE safety tips on an information card being distributed to new parents as part of the information packet given to them when having a baby:

Back seat – Put something in the back seat of your vehicle that requires you to open the door every time you park – cell phone, employee badge, handbag, etc.
Every child should be correctly restrained in the back seat.

Stuffed animal – Keep a stuffed animal in your child’s car seat. Place it on the front seat as a reminder when your baby is in the back seat.
Ask your babysitter or child-care provider to call you if your child hasn’t arrived on time.
Focus on driving – Avoid cell phone calls and texting while driving.
Every time you park make it a routine to open the back door of your car to check that no one has been left behind.

KidsAndCars.org provides these additional safety tips:
· Keep vehicles locked at all times, even in the garage or driveway, and always set your parking brake.
· Keys and remote openers should never be left within reach of children.
· When a child is missing, check vehicles and car trunks immediately.
· If you see a child alone in a vehicle, get involved. Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.
· If they are hot or seem sick, get them out as fast as possible. Be especially careful about keeping children safe in and around cars during busy times, schedule changes and periods of crisis or holidays.
· Use drive-through services when available (restaurants, banks, pharmacies, dry cleaners, etc.)
· Use your debit or credit card to pay for gas at the pump.

For additional information about ways to keep children safe in and around vehicles, visit www.KidsAndCars.org

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About KidsAndCars.org: Founded in 1996 in California, KidsAndCars.org is a national nonprofit child safety organization dedicated to preventing injuries and deaths of children in and around motor vehicles. KidAndCars.org promotes awareness among parents, caregivers and the general public about the dangers to children, including backover and frontover incidents, and heatstroke from being inadvertently left in a vehicle. The organization works to prevent tragedies through data collection, education and public awareness, policy change and survivor advocacy.

KidsAndCars.org
2913 W. 113th St., Leawood, KS 66211 (Greater Kansas City)
Office: 913-327-0013 , Fax: 913-327-0014, www.KidsAndCars.org

Fondest Regards,

Janette E. Fennell
Founder & President
KidsAndCars.org
Office: 913 327-0013
Fax: 913 327-0014
Janette@KidsAndCars.org
www.KidsAndCars.org

Check us out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/KidsAndCarsorg/128148590541866?ref=ts

Petition for mandatory child sensor alert systems

• Target: United States Congress, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Sponsored by: Forget Me Not USA, Cheryll Bennett

We, the people of the United States, petition the United States government to pass a law that will require all car makers to install a Child Sensor Alert Device in all newly manufactured vehicles.
Each year approximately 37 children,  between the ages of 0-4 years, die of hyperthermia (heat stroke) after being left unattended in cars. Over 50% of these die after a parent or guardian drives to their destination and forgets the child is in the car with them, leaving them behind to endure a death no child should endure.
Technology currently exists that could save the lives of hundreds of children. Petition legislators to support a bill which would require the mandatory installation of child sensor alert technology in all new cars.

Go here to sign the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/mandatory-child-sensor-alert-systems-for-all-new-vehilces/

Interview with KTRK channel 13 (ABC)

Toddler dies in family’s hot car

Friday, August 20, 2010

Christine Dobbyn

HOUSTON (KTRK) — It’s a sad reminder of how deadly our summer heat can be: a toddler died on Thursday afternoon after being forgotten in a car. But one group is working to prevent such tragedies.

The organization that tracks these kinds of deaths says that Texas leads the nation this year with 10 children dying in hot cars. And a local mother who’s been through it before is trying to change that.

“You cannot find better people that you’d want as neighbors,” neighbor W. Angelo McDaniel said of the family who lost a child in a hot car Thursday. “They invest enormous amount of time with their children.”

On Thursday, the latest victim was a two-year-old Canadian boy visiting relatives in the 13000 block of Dentwood Street. Khoa Nguyen had only celebrated his second birthday on August 5. Family members got home from the grocery store, went inside and were tending to his seven-year-old brother who has autism and was suffering from a seizure. “Since they’re visiting from out of town, they’re in a strange location, they were trying to get everything set for him, and some of the other kids were playing video games and in the confusion, misplaced the two-year-old,” Harris County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Sgt. Ben Beall said. About two hours later, the father realized his two-year-old son wasn’t in the house. Family members found Khoa unconscious, locked in the car.

They called for an ambulance, and the child was transported to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:36pm.

It’s a story that hits home with Delores Estis.

“Every single parent that I’ve met and talked to believed that it couldn’t happen to them — and it did,” she said. In 2008, Estis’ three-year-old son, Christian LaCombe, died in his grandmother’s hot car. It was the grandmother’s first time to take him to day care, but she forgot to drop him off. “It’s just as a simple as getting a phone call on your regular routine and thinking, oh yeah I dropped my daughter off, I dropped my son off at day care and you didn’t, and it’s tragic,” Estis said. Estis started a local foundation to raise awareness. “If you put your briefcase in the back seat, your purse, it reminds you that your child is back there, and you have to reach back there to get your cell phone, you have to reach back there to get your purse,” she said. Estis says children who die in hot cars come from all races and economic backgrounds. “It’s happened to rocket scientists. It’s happened to principals. It’s happened to a social worker,” Estis said. “It has happened to the best parents you can possibly imagine.” Raising awareness is her way of keeping LaCombe alive. Estis says they’re also lobbying car companies to see if there’s some sort of alarm or warning system in the cars as a reminder to parents.

Interview with channel 2

Mom Talks About Child’s Heat Death

Mother Wants Changes To Prevent More Deaths

POSTED: Friday, August 20, 2010

UPDATED: 4:45 pm CDT August 20, 2010

HOUSTON — A mother whose child died after being left in a hot car is urging that changes be made to prevent more deaths.

(Channel Two video has been removed)

A recent reminder of the danger is the case of a 2-year-old Khoa Nguyen, who was left in an SUV for two hours on Thursday. When someone remembered Khoa was in the vehicle, it was too late.Delores Estis knows firsthand what that Khoa’s family is going through. She lost her 3-year-old son, Christian Charles LaCombe, after he was left alone in a hot car for 10 hours in August 2008.Estis’ mother was supposed to drop Christian off at day care, but she forgot and went straight to work. When she got back into her car to leave, she found Christian.”She put the car in reverse, turned around, looked over her shoulder and saw his foot,” Estis said.Estis said she has a message for Khoa’s family.”Don’t let this tear you apart,” she said. “You can go forward from this. Just hold each other, love each other … know your child is in heaven.”Estis has made it her mission to educate other parents and caretakers. She said she knows people think it could never happen to them, but it really could.The foundation she started is pushing for changes, such as urging car manufacturers to stall some sort of alert system to let driver’s know if a child is left in the back seat. She said she thinks that could save more children, and may have saved her son.Nine children have died in Texas in 2010 after being left in cars. All were under the age of 3.

Interview with KHOU

After son’s hot-car death, mom works to educate parents about hyperthermia

by Kevin Reece / 11 News

khou.com

Posted on August 20, 2010 at 4:43 PM

Updated Friday, Aug 20 at 5:42 PM

HOUSTON—When a 2-year-old boy died after being left inside a car in northwest Harris County Thursday, DeeDee Estis lived the nightmare all over again.

“I feel so bad for them. I wish nobody had to go through what we went through,” she said.

August 13, 2008, her 3-year-old son, Christian, died in Webster.  She’d left the boy with his grandmother, who was supposed to be taking him to day,care.  Estis said her mom had never made that trip before.

The grandmother parked the car at work and went inside.

“He fell asleep in the back seat behind her actually and she forgot,” Estis said.

Christian was in the car for 10 hours before he was found.  He died of hyperthermia in a car where temperatures soared well above 120 degrees.

“This happens to some of the best parents I’ve ever met in my life,” said Estis.

“It happens to lawyers. It’s happened to a principal. It’s happened to a rocket scientist. These parents are crushed that their child is gone.”

So far this year, it has happened 37 times in the United States.  On average, it happens more in Texas than anywhere else.

According to research from San Francisco State University, since 1998 at least 58 children have died in Texas from being left inside vehicles in hot weather.

Marketers are responding, although most of the safety products intended to remind parents about children and car seats can only be found online. The ChildMinder System arms a child seat with a sensor or a clip. The driver keeps a computer chip/fob on a key ring. An alarm sounds if you walk more than 15 feet from the car.

Lower-tech systems include a simple plastic tether—one end attached to the car seat and the other attached to your keys.

Estis is now a safety advocate working with KidsAndCars.org.  She works to alert parents to the disturbing statistics, because of what she’s already lost and what she stands to lose.  She now has a 9-month-old daughter named Bailey.

But still traumatized by her son’s death, she said she’s afraid to even put her daughter in a car seat.

“Just even being in the car, period. It’s just heart-wrenching for me to look back and see the car seat there in the first place. I just prefer to keep her out of the car altogether.  So I just try to keep her at home,” Estis said.

And from home, she fights in her son’s memory to educate parents and keep another child from meeting the same horrible fate.

“He doesn’t want any more children to join him like this,” she said of her deceased son.  “He actually doesn’t have a tombstone, because I don’t think his work is done.”

“The only thing you can do as a parent when you lose a child, even somebody in your life close to you, is fight back and try to do the best you can to save others,” Estis said. “To do everything that I can to save as many kids as I can.”

What would you do?

Primetime ABC is running a special called “What would you do?” where a lifelike baby doll is left alone in a hot car to see what passers-by would do in the situation. Tune in to see the results.

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What if you noticed a baby left alone in a hot car on a hot summer day or a child who seems lost, alone on a street? And how will people react to a gay couple being overly affectionate in public? Using hidden cameras, “Primetime: What Would You Do?” sets up everyday scenarios and then captures people’s reactions.  Whether people are compelled to act or mind their own business, John Quiñones reports on their split-second – and often surprising – decision-making process on “Primetime: What Would You Do?” airing FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 2010 (9:00 – 10:00 pm ET) on the ABC Television Network.  (OAD: 3/11/08)

Often people speculate on how they might act in a difficult situation, but this series shows what they actually do in the face of everyday dilemmas that test their character and values.  Tuesday’s scenarios include:

BABY LEFT ALONE IN A HOT CAR: Almost 40 children die every year after being left behind in a hot car. Did these kids go unnoticed or did strangers just walk on by? Using a lifelike doll, “What Would You Do?” examines how people passing by would react if they did indeed notice – would they come to the baby’s rescue? (OAD: 2/3/09)

Disclaimer

In order to clarify the relationship between “CCL Car Safety” and “No Kids In Cars”, we at CCL Car Safety find it necessary to issue the following disclaimer.

Other than sharing the common goal of preventing the tragic deaths due to leaving unattended children in vehicles, otherwise known as “vehicular hyperthermia,” CCL and No Kids In Cars are wholly separate entities. CCL and No Kids In Cars do not share marketing strategies or information relating to the day to day operations of our particular organizations.

CCL Car Safety does not solicit nor accept monetary contributions from the public; as does No Kid In Cars.

Therefore, any future claims of liable resulting from any incidental, indirect, consequential or special damages of any kind, including those due to misappropriation of funds, false claims or misuse of images are hereby considered the sole purview of the offending party.

We at CCL wish No Kids In Cars great success in educating the public with regard to child safety. We just find it necessary to publicly acknowledge the separate means in which we strive to reach this common goal.

DeLores Estis
Founder / President CCL Car Safety