Bystander saves life of 8-month-old who was left alone inside a hot car after his nurse mother accidentally forgot about him
- Florida woman Jessica Kaiser is being credited with saving a baby boy's life
- Kaiser and her husband saw the baby in the backseat of an unlocked car
- They called 911 to report the baby had been left alone in the strip mall parking lot
- The boy's mother, Meagan Burgess, 33, returned to the car 24 minutes later
- Burgess was arrested and charged with child neglect after the incident
- She told investigators she thought she dropped her son off at her father's home
A passerby saved the life of a baby who had been left in the back seat of an unlocked car during a baking hot Florida afternoon.
The incident occurred on July 17 at about 3pm, when Jessica Kaiser was walking through an Orange City, Florida, strip mall parking lot with her husband and saw what appeared to be a doll in the back seat of a car.
As soon as Kaiser realized it was a real baby, she and her husband called 911.
Mom Meagan Burgess, 33, of Florida, was arrested and charged with child neglect after bystanders called 911 to report they discovered a baby left alone in a car in 93 degree weather
Authorities moved the eight month old to an air conditioned vehicle and fed him
During the 911 call, Kaiser's husband told the emergency operator that they found a baby in a car seat, alone inside a black Nissan Rogue. The owner of the car was nowhere to be seen, but Kaiser's husband said it didn't appear that the car had been parked for too long, as 'the car didn't seem too hot when we opened the door.'
Kaiser's husband said he and his wife opened the door to circulate air inside the car and that his wife was fanning the baby to 'keep him cool and calm.' He also noted that the baby was fine, he was breathing and wasn't crying.
First responders arrived minutes after the 911 call was made. The Orange City Fire Department moved the baby into their air conditioned vehicle and fed him.
The boy's mother, Meagan Burgess, 33, returned to the car about 24 minutes later. She was then arrested and charged with child neglect.
Burgess told authorities that she thought she had dropped her kids off at her father's home before going to run errands at the strip mall
Authorities later revealed that the baby boy was just eight months old and that the weather outside the car was 93 degrees, but felt more like 103 degrees with the heat index. The baby was left inside the unlocked car with the windows up and the air conditioning off, as the car was not running.
The day after the incident, the Florida Volusia County Sheriff's Office posted a video on its Facebook page, showing Sheriff Mike Chitwood personally thanking Kaiser for her quick thinking and warning parents about the dangers of leaving children unattended in cars.
The video also included police body cam footage of the moment Burgess returned to her car and realized that she had left her son inside.
In the video, Burgess, wearing a black tank top, can be heard saying through tears, 'Is he okay?'
Burgess, in a yellow shirt, replies, 'He's okay,' and gives the visibly shaken Burgess a hug.
Later, Burgess says: 'I work at the emergency department, I'm a nurse, I hear these stories — I have four kids and I always think, how could that possibly ever happen?'
An off-camera voice, presumably a police officer, responds, 'It happens.'
Burgess (left) was comforted by good Samaritan Jessica Kaiser (right), who discovered the boy in the car while she was walking through the parking lot with her husband and they called 911
In a police video, Burgess can be heard tearfully saying that she is an ER nurse with four kids and always wonders 'how can this possibly happen' when hearing stories about kids left in cars
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'We avoided a disaster. Thank the good Lord for a good Samaritan,' Chitwood said in the Facebook video.
Chitwood revealed that Burgess told investigators that she thought she had dropped her three children off at her father's home, before going to the store to run some errands.
Had Kaiser not noticed the child in the backseat, the boy would have been alone in the car for at least 24 minutes and 'We would be discussing the tragedy of an eight-month-old child,' Chitwood said.
'We can't hammer home enough how important it is for parents to stay on top of their game and understand that that little life is depending on you,' he said, while adding that it's equally important for other people to be observant and aware of their surroundings because that can help save lives.
A Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesperson told ABC News that the eight-month-old boy 'was in good health and good spirits,' when authorities arrived and that he hadn't been in the car for long before he was found.
The spokesperson also said that Burgess had said that forgetting her baby in the car was 'her worst fear.'
Burgess was in court Wednesday and The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified, authorities said.
The Orange City Fire Department also took to Facebook to warn about the dangers of leaving children in cars alone, without air conditioning, on hot days.
'Temperatures inside a vehicle can rise 20 degrees in 10 minutes, and infants are particularly vulnerable to heatstroke,' the fire department noted, adding that 42 children died as a result of being left inside hot cars last year.
