Italian toddler left by dad in hot car dies

[celeb_2006]

Italian toddler left by dad in hot car dies

(05-22) 07:02 PDT ROME, Italy (AP) --

A Italian toddler died after her father forgot to drop her off at day-care and left her in his hot car for five hours.

Doctors at Ancona's Salesi pediatric hospital on the Adriatic coast declared the 22-month-old brain dead late Saturday, three days after her father returned from his university teaching job to find her barely breathing.

The child, identified only as Elena, had surgery to relieve swelling on the brain, but doctors said it was too extensive to save her. An autopsy is planned for Tuesday.

Dr. Francesca De Pace, coordinator for transplants in the Ancona area, expressed gratitude to the parents for giving permission for Elena's heart, liver and kidneys to be transplanted.

"If people stop and reflect, this might be the only consolation, the donation of organs, the only thing that might give some sense to this tragedy," De Pace told a news conference. Officials said a 2-year-old boy in a Bergamo hospital received Elena's heart on Sunday, while the liver recipient was a young boy in Turin.

The kidneys were being checked to see if they were suitable for transplant.

Prosecutors will decide whether to charge the father, Lucio Petrizzi, with manslaughter.

The distraught Petrizzi has told investigators his memory went blank and that he inexplicably thought he had dropped the child off at day-care on his way to his job as professor of veterinary medicine at Teramo university, as was his routine. When he found the child after finishing teaching, he frantically called for an ambulance.

The child's mother, Chiara Sciarrini, fighting back tears as she read a message on television Saturday, appealed for understanding for her partner, whom she described as being distracted while juggling many responsibilities.

"I want to shout to the entire world how much my companion loved his daughter, he is an exemplary father," said Sciarrini, a university researcher who is eight months pregnant. "What happened to him could happen to anyone." She said Petrizzi was "worried about me, about my pregnancy and about little Elena."

"Everything was supposed to be perfect and I wasn't supposed to worry," she said, sorrowfully. "He was supposed to bring Elena to day-care and I was supposed to stay home and rest," Sciarrini said, adding "his little girl adored him."

[baked_tater]

Horrible. Just tonight on the news, a mom was arrested here in my city for leaving her two yr old to die in a car. What is wrong with people?

[McJag]

Horrible. I do think young parents are sleep deprived for the most part.

[Mel1973]

This shit always tears me up. On one hand, I DO feel badly for the parents. On the other hand, I just want to shake the shit out of them and rock their asses with some pimp slaps whilst screaming "wtf were thinking, you idiot!". I mean, there are mornings when I'm driving down the road and I think "hey, did I lock the door?" but I have never had occasion to think "hmm, did I leave my fucking kid strapped in a car that he can't escape from and that will surely kill him?". However, kudos to this family for thinking of others even in a time of great sadness for them.

[chartreuse]

Horrible. I do think young parents are sleep deprived for the most part.

vouch. i think sleep dep has so much to do with these tragic cases.

[LynnieD]

Oh lawd.....these threads always bring out the best in everyone!

[PinkCadillac]

I don't how how the hell can anyone forget something like that.
I'm sure loads of people would disagree but imo if someone has already plenty of stress in their life, then they shouldn't bring kids in the world.
At least it was good of the parents to donate the organs.

[WhateverLolaWants]

I've made some pretty stupid mistakes in my life, most of them during the time when my youngest son didn't sleep for two years. You say it will never happen to you until it does.

[Brookie]

What a horrible way to die.

[witchcurlgirl]

If only people without stress had kids the human race would have died out ages ago.

[McJag]

If only people without stress had kids the human race would have died out ages ago.

No. Now parents are more under the gun than my parents ever were. Mother could stay home. We didn't need much money to live nicely.
Now most mothers must work, and not for greed either.
There is too much, even with a stay at home parent. Parenhood has become a competition in a lot of cases. From wake-up to bedtime every hour is programed. There is a list of things kids must acheive on schedule. I know an 11 year old girl that has to call her Grandmother on Wednesdays between 7-8 because that is the only free time she has-all friggin week. Easy to blame the parents, but peer pressure is fierce.

[witchcurlgirl]

But not all stress is related to finance/modern life pressures. I would imagine for example that Europeans living during WW2 had extremely high stress.

[MohandasKGanja]

When I read a story about this, I always wonder what the parents' routine was.

When I would drop off my daughter, I would always sign her in, and then call my wife on the way in to work to talk about what kind of mood she was in, etc. Like clockwork.

I've heard that people who forget to do this are people who get thrown off their schedule, and are stressed/tired at the same time. Even so, you've got a little kid in your back seat that you have been glancing at/talking to on the way to daycare/work. It seems weird to just forget, at any point, that the child is there. Almost like the parent has had the equivalent of a nervous breakdown.

[Brandy Alexander]

My son didn't sleep through the night until he was almost 2. I became so sleep deprived I was like a zombie. He never slept in his carseat on the way to daycare, though, b/c it was a short drive. He'd make little noises and gurgles and fussy noises, and I'd be talking to him from the front seat. I never quite know what to think in these cases. On one hand I can't imagine a parent doing that, but the news seems to report these cases a lot. I guess it happens ~

[witchcurlgirl]

It's sad for the child, and for the parents. I would like to think that I could never do this, but there for the grace blah blah.....

I cannot imagine what the parents must have to live with in cases where this is just a momentary lapse in memory. The guilt must be unbearable.