Articles labeled: heat stroke

Ugh, these stories seem to pop up every summer. How on earth do you “accidentally” leave your baby in the car for over an hour?

It was the hottest day of the year. And the death was the region’s second in a week involving a young child who was apparently forgotten in a hot vehicle.

The boy’s frantic mother called police to their home in the community of Savannah, north of Little Elm, about 2:40 p.m., said Sgt. Roger Griggs, of the Denton County Sheriff’s office.

“The child was left in the car for at least an hour unattended,” Sgt. Griggs said. “The child was unconscious when the child was found by the mother.”

A helicopter flew the boy to Children’s Medical Center Dallas, where he was pronounced dead about 4 p.m., Sgt. Griggs said. The Dallas County medical examiner identified the child late Sunday as Markus Anthony Lewis.

Some reports estimate his time of death from heat exhaustion was only after 3 - 4 hours. The boy was only 10 year old…

DeGeus-Morris said Nettleton had been outside exposed to the elements for around 17 hours and likely died from environmental hyperthermia. Temperatures in the Foothills south of Emmett that day reached into the mid-90s.

She believes the boy became disoriented and the heat was too much for him. Hyperthermia sets in when the body fails to adequately cool itself.

You have to wonder how a father that would leave an 18-month-old locked in a hot car would get custody of his four kids to begin with. The outside temperature on the day this allegedly took place was nearly 100 degrees.

Cosimo Capitiano offered no explanation to the judge Monday about why he left his baby in a hot car Sunday, but his estranged wife’s attorney said he shouldn’t have had custody of the children to begin with.

The attorney representing the children’s mother, Aurelius Capitiano, said the father lied that she was keeping them in an unsafe home in south Florida so that he could get custody of them and avoid having to pay child support. Until he did that, the children had been with their mother. The judge’s decision Monday means all four children are going home with their mother.

Kathy Fishbough just happened to park her car at the Chuck E. Cheese parking lot next to Capitanio’s vehicle. She quickly realized the toddler was locked inside the car.

“All windows were up. The car wasn’t on. No keys in ignition. I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me,’” she said.