My heart broke for the family of the tragic one -year -old who did not respond this week in a vehicle outside of her daycare center.
Not only for the devastating loss of Little Olivia for her parents, Etienne Ancelet and Kim Visconti, but also for life for them.
How can someone really forget their own baby?
Unfortunately I know all too well how it can happen. I did it myself – but luckily for me, without the tragic consequences that Olivia's parents now encounter.
Not long after my son Jonty was born, I brought him to the car and went to the local shopping center … alone.
It was only after I had done some window shops and caught a trolley for groceries that I realized I had forgotten my bags and walked back to the car to grab them.
When I opened the back door, my blood got cold when I caught a glimpse of Yonty's little legs in his newly installed car capsule and panic tore through me.
I had not been long – 10 minutes, maybe 15 – but it was in the middle of the summer and statistically it can only take a few minutes to turn to rising temperatures for tragedy.
Baby Olivia's father Etienne Ancelet and mother Kim Visconti paid tribute to their little girl that she was the light of their lives
Jonica Bray (depicted with her family) says she knows that things could have ended badly on the day she forgot her baby Yonty in the car
Jonty stayed in the car for about 10 minutes and it only went back for my shopping bags that I remembered, writes Tanica Bray (depicted with Jonty)
Children's bodies can heat up five times faster than an adult and their large organs start to close.
I was not distracted. Nothing unusual had happened. I just forgot him.
Fortunately, Jonty was ok, but my experience and others are much worse not unusual, with an average of 5,000 children being saved in Australia for a year from hot cars.
Forgotten Babysyndrome (FBS) is the medical explanation for when parents leave a baby or young child in a closed car that often ends a tragedy.
Fathers are more susceptible to distractions, with a survey by safe children worldwide and think that they are three times more likely to walk away without thinking of their child in the backseat of their car.
FBS is common when parents concentrate on future tasks instead of at the moment that are found, which can pour a quiet or sleeping baby in potentially fatal danger.
The father of Olivia, Mr Ancelet, made the horrible discovery at 5.30 pm when he arrived to collect Olivia from childcare, but the staff told him she had never been dropped off.
He then found Olivia in his car where she had left for hours for hours, while the temperature exceeded 30 ° C. His penetrating screaming drowned out of the Spitsdrone.
Newaz Hasan left his 3-year-old Arikh in the car for six hours and only realized when he drove to pick up his other son
In February 2023, Newaz Hasan bundled his two sons in his car for the morning school run, dropped his oldest in primary school and believed that he had dropped his youngest to childcare before he returned to their house in Glenfield.
But three-year-old Arikh Hasan, was left in the car for six hours on a 35c day in southwest Sydney.
Only when his loving father drove back to school and opened the door for his other son, did he realize that Arikh had been inside all day.
CPR was performed until paramedics arrived, but it was too late and the toddler could not be saved.
“There was nothing in my mind, I was not distracted, nothing … I just forgot,” admitted Lord Hasan at the time.
Fatal distraction is another common cause of children left in cars, but instead of just forgetting, parents experience something unusual in the run -up to the event.
University of South Florida Professor David Diamond, who specializes in the study of the memory, has spent two decades investigating how children can be forgotten in this way.
University of South Florida Professor David Diamond, (EFT) who specializes in the study of the memory, spent two decades investigating how children can be forgotten in this way. Kidsafe NSW -executing officer Christine Erskine (Right) says there are a number of precautions that parents can take to minimize the risk
Dr. Diamond said that interaction between two brain systems – the clear conscious cognitive memory and the subconscious memory – could explain these tragic cases.
He said that any interruption of a routine can lead to a person's habitual system control by being in 'Autopilot mode'.
“There are brain image studies to show that when you do something out of habit, you can even suppress conscious cognitive memorial system and so you lose the consciousness of your plan,” he said.
And he warns, it can happen to anyone.
“If you look at the parents, you notice that they are incredibly normal, which means they are attentive … these are loving parents, these are not negligent parents,” he said.
In February 2015, the Victorian mother Romy took her older child to school and believed that she then dropped 22 months old Noah at daycare.
Only later that afternoon did she pick him up again that she made the devastating discovery that he had died in the backseat of her car.
In a statement to the police, Sleep-Reliable Mrs. Zunde said that the childcare center was very close to the parental home.
Romy Zunde took her older child to school and believed that she then dropped 22 months old Noah (photo) on childcare.
A simple wrong turn while she was in 'Autopilot mode' meant that she went home directly instead of dropping him off.
'[It was] A left turn directly opposite the right turn to our house. I can only assume that I automatically made a turn to the right instead of left, “she said.
She also believes that Noah must have fallen asleep in the car, which means he was quiet in the back seat.
“He probably slept in the car, which he almost never did,” she said.
The number of children dying in Hot in Australia is increasing and although newer cars are equipped with occupant detection systems, the majority of cars does not have the technology
Kidsafe NSW -executing officer Christine Erskine says that there are a number of precautions and simple memories that parents can implement to minimize the risk.
“New cars have technology to warn you when a seat belt from the authority is not disconnected,” she told Daily Mail Australia. 'There are many older cars that people do not have that.
'But you can place your keys, wallet, handbag or bag in the back seat with the child and open the back door to pick them up.
'If you want to put their backpack on the front seat so that you see it when you leave the car.
“The children usually dived into a moving car, so unless there is something very important to jog your memory when you come out, you can easily forget it.”
Looking back on that day with Jonty, one of those simple tactics would have helped me remember him.
And although I am not trying to think about how different that day could end, every time I hear about another family that their worse nightmare lives, just Olivias are, I am reminded how happy I am.
