An infant is in “very critical” condition after he was left in a hot car in southwest suburban Joliet for roughly two hours Tuesday afternoon.
A miscommunication between the 7-month-old’s parents apparently led to him being left in the car alone in a Joliet Public Library parking lot at 22 W. Clinton St., Joliet Police Deputy Chief Alan Roechner said.
The child’s mother and her boyfriend, who is the infant’s father, were together earlier that day with the woman’s other two children, a 3-year-old and a 12-year-old, Roechner said.
She dropped her boyfriend and the other children off at their home, and later told police she thought he had taken the infant out of their vehicle, Roechner said.
The woman then parked downtown to go to a meeting at a title company at 10 a.m., and left the vehicle not realizing the baby was inside, he said.
She realized what had happened about noon, after the meeting ended and she listened to a message from her boyfriend asking where the child was, Roechner said.
The woman found the baby unresponsive and not breathing inside the vehicle, Roechner said. She yelled for help from a nearby parking enforcement officer who called police.
Paramedics were able to revive the child at the scene and took him to Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center, he said. The child went into cardiac arrest at the hospital, but was stabilized.
He has since been transferred to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he remains in “very critical” condition, Roechner said.
No charges or citations have been filed as of Tuesday afternoon as Joliet Police continue their investigation.
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