The Prosecutor’s Office in Rome has opened an investigation after the four-year-old child of Romanian tourists on vacation in Sardinia died in the hospital a few days after being found in heat shock in his parents’ car parked in the sun.
According to the carabinieri from the Alghero Company, on August 6, the child of Romanian tourists on vacation in Olmedo, in north-western Sardinia, went out of the house while his parents were resting at noon.
When they realized that the little one was missing, they started looking for him, finding him in their car parked in front of the house under scorching sun.
It was his mother who discovered him and immediately called an ambulance. Unconscious, the child, who had suffered heat shock as the car temperature exceeded 50 degrees, was initially taken to the Intensive Care Unit of the Santissima Annunziata hospital in Sassari.
As the child's condition was critical, with doctors suspecting brain injuries, the child was transferred to Gemelli Hospital in Rome. Although on Sunday the child's condition seemed to have stabilized, it worsened during the day on Monday, and the child did not survive.
In these circumstances, the Prosecutor's Office in Rome has opened a case to clarify how the events unfolded and establish any responsibilities. Investigators are reconstructing the timeline of the child's disappearance and finding, as well as the safety conditions of the residence. According to the Italian press, there are currently no restrictive measures, but the investigation continues to evaluate all aspects of the case. The press also reports that the four-year-old child was, along with his parents and siblings, a guest at friends' house in a rural area of Olmedo, in the province of Sassari, where they were spending their vacation.
According to doctors, for a child to suffer such a severe heat shock, he must have remained locked in the car exposed to high temperatures.
Italy and several European countries are facing new waves of extreme heat, leading meteorological institutes to issue red heatwave alerts. The Italian Ministry of Health issued a red alert on Monday for seven major cities, including Bologna and Florence, as temperatures are expected to rise even further in the coming days. Eleven cities are on red alert on Tuesday and 16 on Wednesday.