Father’s desperate plea to parents after his son, 3, died in hot car
The father of a three-year-old boy who died after he was left in a car for six hours on a 35C day has issued a plea that all parents need to hear.
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The father of a three-year-old boy who died after he was left in a car for six hours on a 35C day has issued a plea that all parents need to hear.
Little Arikh Hasan died last Thursday when his dad Newaz Hasan forgot to drop him at daycare and accidentally left him strapped inside the back of his car as he went to work.
Heartbroken Mr Hasan told the Daily Telegraph what happened that day and warned other parents not to make the same life-changing mistake.
The devastated father-of-two explained that he put Arikh and his six-year-old brother into his Toyota Corolla and dropped his eldest off at school in Glenfield in south west Sydney.
He would then usually have dropped Arikh at daycare, but forgot as the little boy was sleeping and not making much noise.
“I would normally talk to my son on the way to daycare, you know, we would chat...but because he was asleep this day, the car was silent,” Mr Hasan said.
“I think that silence just made me forget he was there.”
Mr Hasan then worked from home for six hours and didn’t even notice unresponsive Arikh when he got back in the car to go and pick up his older son.
“I drove again and parked outside the shops and I walked up to get my older son…When I came back and I opened the back door to put my boy in, then I saw him,” the father said.
Mr Hasan rushed Arikh into a shop and attempted CPR, but he could not be saved.
He desperately urged other parents to “always be 120 per cent sure where your kids are”.
Mr Hasan has not been charged over his son’s death.
Witness Mujammel Hossain told Daily Mail Australia he saw Mr Hasan and his oldest child screaming and crying, before calling the ambulance on their behalf.
“He took the boy out of the car and took him inside the bottle shop. The father did CPR so many times but there was no response,” Mr Hossain said.
The witness said he could tell by the young boy’s condition he had already died, explaining he looked really hot with “no pulse”.
When NSW Ambulance officers arrived, Arikh was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Hasan was later seen at the scene breaking down in tears with blood running down his hand. He had punched his car’s window in frustration after realising what he had done.
Child safety advocates Kidsafe claim more than 5000 children are rescued from hot cars in Australia every year — the majority being babies and toddlers.
“Leaving children unattended in a car – even for a short period of time – can be fatal,” reads information on Kidsafe’s website.
“Children are particularly at risk because they can lose fluid quickly, become dehydrated and suffer from heatstroke.”
Originally published as Father’s desperate plea to parents after his son, 3, died in hot car