Young girl fights for life after being left on bus in roasting temperatures
A three-year-old has been left fighting for her life after she was found unresponsive from being on a daycare bus outside a Queensland childcare centre for nearly six hours.
Temperatures in Rockhampton reached 28 C on Wednesday, and it’s believed that three-year-old Nevaeh Austib had been on the bus - parked outside the Le Smileys Early Learning Centre near Rockhampton - since she was picked up from her family’s home at 9am.
She was found unconscious at approximately 3pm and rushed to Rockhampton hospital in critical condition.
Nevaeh’s father, Shane Austin, told the Courier Mail his little girl has since been taken to a Brisbane hospital to undergo a deep brain scan and treatment for potential kidney failure.
“She’s the most loudest little girl they tell me … she’s the heart of the daycare,” he said.
The childcare centre has remained closed as of Thursday morning.
Jason Thompson, the operations manager for Queensland Ambulance’s Central Region service, told media on Wednesday that Nevaeh was found “unresponsive” and described the situation as “traumatic” for those who treated her, per The Daily Mail.
“On the crew’s arrival Queensland Police were already on scene and escorted the crew into the childcare centre where the young child was on the floor in the admin room,” he said.
Police have launched an investigation into the incident and interviewed the daycare staff, according to 9News.
It comes just two years after Muriel Namok’s three-year-old son died after being left on a minibus by childcare staff for a similar amount of time in Cairns.
Ms Namok appeared on the Today Show on Thursday morning and shared her anger at Nevaeh’s situation, saying it made her “sick to her stomach”.
“It’s just too tragic. Again, why?” she told co-hosts Ally Langdon and Karl Stefanovic.
“This is terrible.
“I feel really sick to my stomach. Angry. I know this feeling too well.”
Today show hosts Karl Stefanovic and Ally Langdon fought back tears after speaking to the mum who lost her son in a similar situation. Image: Nine
She said that parents should be able to trust that their children are safe in childcare centres, and that the centres need to take responsibility when things go wrong.
“They are taking our children and we are trusting them to bring them back,” Ms Namok said.
“For this to happen, they need to be held accountable.”
After speaking to the grieving mum, who broke down as the interview ended, both Stefanovic and Langdon were fighting back tears live on air.
“It’s horrendous,” Stefanovic said.
“There’s nothing else to say to that,” Langdon added. “And that poor family. It really shouldn’t happen.”
Image: Nine