A one-year-old boy lost his life in the back of a parked car while the summer heat beat down on a Georgia hospital lot. The little boy was left strapped in his car seat for nearly nine hours straight. Nobody realized he was back there as the morning sun turned into blistering afternoon heat.
His day started like any other Wednesday morning in a household with three young kids. He rode along in his car seat while his mother headed out to drop the children off at daycare. But while his two older brothers got walked inside, the baby never made it out of the car.
Instead, the car kept rolling toward Northside Hospital Gwinnett, where his mother parked in the employee lot just before 7:00 a.m. The toddler was left sitting alone in the backseat as the vehicle was shut off and locked for the workday.
As hours passed, the temperature inside the car climbed rapidly under the bright sun. Outside, people walked back and forth across the parking lot completely unaware of the sweet child trapped in the dark back seat. Inside, the little boy slumped over in his seat.
It was nearly 4:00 p.m. when a hospital worker walking through the employee lot spotted something wrong. Looking through the window, the worker saw the unresponsive toddler slumped in his car seat and immediately dialed 911.
Police officers rushed to the scene, smashed the car window, and pulled the boy out onto the pavement. Officers and emergency crews started lifesaving efforts right away, but it was already too late. The baby boy was pronounced dead right there at the scene.
Even an hour after officers broke the window and removed the child, police measured the temperature inside the vehicle at a scorching 117 degrees. The tragedy cut short a fresh young life and left family members grieving a boy who never got the chance to grow up.
The 29-year-old mother is facing second-degree murder charges after a slip in her morning routine ended in this unbelievable heartbreak. Deja Coleman arrived for her shift at Northside Hospital Gwinnett on Wednesday morning, thinking she had dropped all her kids off at daycare.
Coleman’s usual morning routine involved driving her three children to daycare before heading into work. On that morning, she carried her two older children inside the facility first. But in a terrible lapse of memory, she forgot to walk back out to retrieve her one-year-old son from his car seat.
Without realizing her baby was still in the back, Coleman drove straight to the hospital. Security camera footage caught her pulling into the employee parking lot around 6:55 a.m., parking her car, and walking inside to start her daily work shift.
For nearly nine hours, Coleman worked inside the hospital while her infant son remained trapped in the vehicle outside. She went about her duties believing her baby was safe and sound at daycare with his older siblings.
Everything changed at 3:50 p.m. when another hospital worker noticed the toddler slumped over in the car seat and called emergency responders. Police officers broke into the vehicle and ran the license tags, which led them straight to Coleman inside the building.
Officers met with Coleman in a hospital conference room to deliver the news. Police said Coleman was completely devastated when she learned her baby boy was dead inside her car.
Authorities arrested Coleman and transported her to the Gwinnett County Detention Center. She now faces charges of second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children, while her two surviving older kids have been placed in their father’s care.
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