Jennifer Abma is a mother from Canada who thought that by keeping her kids indoors that she would protect them from the extreme heat outside.
Unfortunately, her three-year-old daughter suffered a heat stroke in her bedroom while sleeping. Her mom shared what happened in an emotional post on social media.
She explained in the caption of a photo of her daughter lying in bed that this was the scariest moment in her life. Her daughter went through a severe heat stroke.
The girl in the photo is visibly swollen and red. Her mom emphasized that nothing is scarier for a parent than not being able to wake up your child.
What her daughter experienced is a clear sign that kids don’t need to be out in the sun to get a heat stroke.
“I Could Not Wake Her Up for 20 Minutes”
The worried mom said that she needed 20 minutes to wake her daughter Anastasia. In the meantime, the family called the ambulance.
Anastasia went for a nap. Her mom didn’t know how hot the bedroom was until she went there to wake her up. She saw that Anastasia was soaking in sweat, her face was red, and wasn’t waking up to her calls.
When the paramedics came, they measured Anastasia’s sugar levels.
They were 1.2 and they should be higher than 4 in normal conditions. They quickly administered sucrose and in several minutes, the girl woke up crying and evidently scared.
Jennifer wrote that she knows that what happened wasn’t her fault, however, it was really hard not to blame herself.
So, in the post she shared explaining what happened, she also urged other parents to be more careful.
A Public Plea to All Parents: Check Your Kids’ Rooms Often
She urges them to check their kids when they’re alone in their rooms because the heat there can be as dangerous as the heat in a hot car. Jennifer who is a single mom doesn’t have air conditioning in her home.
However, she left the window in her daughter’s room open and the blinds were closed. A cooling fan wasn’t running at the moment.
She also said that she didn’t know one can get a heat stroke indoors other than in a car. However, Lurie Children’s Hospital notes that cars may get 19 degrees warmer in only 10 seconds.
With this in mind, it’s not difficult to imagine that rooms can also heat up fast too.
And, kids have a harder time regulating their body temperature, making them more prone to overheating.
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