Thread: TX-Child dies from heat-related injuries at flea market, mot

Child dies from heat-related injuries at flea market, mother charged

August 03, 2009 10:56 AM
By LAURA B. MARTINEZ
The Brownsville Herald

Death highlights danger for children in parked vehicles

A Brownsville child is dead and her mother remains jailed on charges of abandoning or endangering a child after the girl died at a local hospital from heat-related injuries.

Four-year-old Felicitas Alexandra Cordova apparently fell asleep in the family’s Ford Expedition while it was parked at the Flea Market on Expressway 77/83 on Sunday, Brownsville police Lt. Orlando Rodriguez said.

Although she was treated by emergency medical services personnel, Cordova later died at a local hospital.

Cordova’s car-related heat death is the first this year in Texas and the 23rd in the nation, according to Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology and certified consulting meteorologist at San Francisco State University.

Null conducts research and tracks the deaths of children left in hot vehicles, he said.

In a matter of 10 minutes, the temperature inside a vehicle can increase by 19 degrees, which can "kill a small infant of child," Null said in a telephone interview from San Francisco.

With an outside temperature of about 96 degrees on Sunday, the temperature inside the car could have peaked at more than 140 degrees, Null said. A body temperature of 104 degrees or higher could lead to a heatstroke and other health complications.

National statistics show that more than 30 children have died from car-related heat strokes each year over the past eight years. Last year, a reported 42 children died from car heat-related injuries, according to information on the Texas Department of Family Protective Services Web site.

Lowering or cracking a window to allow air to flow into a hot vehicle is not much help, Null said. "A 127 degree temperature compared to 130 degrees," is not going to make a difference. Null said.

Olga Salazar, 37, Felicitas’ mother and an undocumented immigrant, has been arraigned on one count of abandoning or endangering a child. Her bond was set at $20,000 and she was to be transferred to a Cameron County jail on Monday.

Salazar, a single mother, ran three booths at the flea market and she and her children were tending to the booths when the little girl went missing, Rodriguez said.

"There was some confusion as to how it happened and the mother loss track of her (Felicitas,)" Rodriguez said.

Although emergency services personnel and several residents performed cardio pulmonary resuscitation on Cordova while at the flea market, she died shortly after at Valley Regional Medical Center, Rodriguez said.

Authorities estimate the temperature inside the vehicle was at about 100 degrees or more. It is not known how long the child had been in the sport utility vehicle before she was found.

According to police, the Salazar family arrived at the flea market at around 7 a.m. Sunday. It wasn’t until the afternoon that they discovered Cordova missing.

The little girl had been going back and forth between Salazar and a 17-year-old sibling, police said. Each family member was under the impression that Cordova was with the other.

Police are still trying to determine what prompted Cordova to open the door and get inside the vehicle.

"Either she (Cordova) went in there and went to sleep or was in there sleeping… She could have easily gone in there and lost consciousness of the heat, which is something that unfortunately happens," Rodriguez said.

The family often left the car doors to the vehicle unlocked and it was not uncommon for the children to get inside it to rest the family reported to police, Rodriguez said.

They usually did this in the morning before the flea market opened.

The little girl was found unresponsive inside the Ford Expedition shortly after 4 p.m. Police and EMS personnel were sent to the flea market where they tried to revive the child, Rodriguez said.

"There was a faint sign of life," Rodriguez said, "however they were not able to revive her and she died shortly there after."

An autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death.

Although Cordova’s death isn’t the typical child left in a hot car incident, it should dictate to parents that they need to keep an eye on the children at all time, Rodriguez said.

"The bottom line is that you always have to watch out for your children and always make sure they are accounted for," Rodriguez said. "In this case that is not what happened and this in the end result."

"We feel for the family for what they are going through but our duty is to Felicitas Cordova and making sure that this case is worked up," Rodriguez said.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/c ... -heat.html

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Since she is illegal, this story should be moved to "News"