Heartpounding Moment Cop Saves Age 3 Girl Left in Hot Car for 12 Hours
Every time we hear about a parent who left their child strapped inside a hot vehicle, our blood begins to boil. We feel a deep sense of injustice, and rightly so — we wish we could turn back time and save the child before it’s too late.
While not all children are fortunate to survive such a nightmare, a 3-year-old girl from Florida has made a full recovery after 12 hours of being left inside her mother’s car. The toddler is alive and well thanks in part to Seminole County Deputy Bill Dunn.
Two months after the frightening incident, the Seminole County Sherrif’s Office has released dash cam footage of Dunn pulling a scarcely-alive body out of a hot vehicle on June 17. It was Father’s Day, Dunn remembered, and being a father himself, he took this particular call personally.
Dunn responded to a 911 call from the child’s mother, 33-year-old Casey Keller. According to WOFL-TV, the mother claimed somebody stole her car with her little girl trapped inside.
Keller’s story didn’t pan out, rather, she’d left the house late at night with her three children to buy liquor. She came home and forgot about her toddler until the next morning.
When Dunn arrived at the scene, he thought the little girl was already dead.
“(I was) immediately hit with just a wave of hot, steamy air,” he told ABC News. “Felt the pulse on the child and didn’t feel a pulse.”
“So I took her out of the car seat and she was just limp,” Dunn said.
“So I ran her back to my patrol car, put her underneath the A/C vent and at that point, her eyes began to flutter a little bit, so I was, like, yeah she’s alive.”
Dunn didn’t wait for an ambulance, instead, he escorted the 3-year-old to the hospital himself. He recalled the adrenaline coursing through his body as he said farewell to the little girl, not knowing whether or not she would pull through.
But thanks to Dunn’s quick-thinking and a team of expert medical staff, the child did pull through.
“She’s a fighter,” Dunn said. “She fought right through it and she wanted to be here.”
Three days later, Dunn was able to reunite with the little girl, a meeting he said made him a little nervous.
“I brought a little stuffed animal just to break the ice,” Dunn said. “She asked if that was mine, and I said, ‘no, it’s yours.'”
The little girl gave Dunn a huge hug, and the officer returned her affection with a protective embrace.
“It makes a lot of the bad things we see worth it,” Dunn said of having a second chance to meet the little girl. “For sure.”
Keller was arrested and charged with child neglect and great bodily harm.
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