Johannesburg -
A four-month-old baby was treated for severe dehydration after being locked in a car while her mother had apparently gone shopping.
The baby girl was found at 10.30am on Seventh Street in Springs by people passing by.
The police were immediately alerted and had to break a window to get the child out.
Netcare paramedics hydrated the child before she was taken to hospital for further medical care with the mother in tow, said Netcare spokesman Chris Botha. On Wednesday, the temperature was around 30°C.
According to a report Botha received from paramedics on the scene, it appeared that the mother had gone shopping and left the infant locked in the car. She showed up while the paramedics were treating the child. She was arrested on the scene but released later at the police station with a warning so that she could attend to the child.
Botha said he did not know how long the child had been locked in the car, but cited a study published in the Louisiana Medical Journal that said it took 14 minutes for a car to heat up to oven temperatures of around 60°C.
In a similar case, a woman, believed to be in her 80s, was treated for heatstroke as a result of being locked in a car at the parking lot of a shopping centre in Boksburg on Tuesday.
The temperature inside the vehicle was 38°C.
According to ER24 spokesman Derrick Banks, her family had left her in the car.
Police helped paramedics break the window to gain access to the car.