Matt Marshall

Hey there and welcome to Jennex talkin on being prepared. This is episode one of our interview series I'm Matt Marshall.

 Matt Marshall

Overall preparedness enthusiast and I'm here to remind us with preparedness comes comfort with preparedness. Comes peace, something we could all use a bit more of.

 Matt Marshall

I want to begin today with a list listeners. Please listen carefully. All dates from 2021.

 Matt Marshall

April 25th Iridal County, North Carolina 70 degrees girl five months.

 Matt Marshall

June 3rd, Physalia, California 102 degrees girl three years June 9th Pace FL 86 degrees boy nine months.

 Matt Marshall

June 13th St. Mary's, Ohio 86 degrees girl one year.

 Matt Marshall

June 14th New Iberia, LA 93 degrees. Boy two years.

 Matt Marshall

June 24th Gaston County, North Carolina 81 degrees Bureau two years.

 Matt Marshall

June 30th, Spartanburg, SC 92 degrees. Boy three years.

 Matt Marshall

July 16th, Homestead, FL. 88 degrees. Girl two years.

 Matt Marshall

July 16th, Tyler, TX 86 degrees. Boy three years July 21st American Fork, UT 94 degrees. Boy 11 years.

 Matt Marshall

We're talking with Kristen Marshall from the Anne Arundel County Department of Health.

 Matt Marshall

She's in the Family Services healthy start program and serves as a nationally certified parent. As teacher educator. Hi Kristen. Welcome to the show.

 Kristin Marshall

Hi Matt, thanks for having me here.

 Matt Marshall

So the first question I have for you is what does a parent educator do?

 Kristin Marshall

A parent educator is a professional that partners themselves with parents and helps those parents obtain the education, the skills they need in order to raise physically, psychologically and emotionally healthy children.

 Matt Marshall

That's excellent, now I'm guessing there's a great need for this type of service out in the public.

 Matt Marshall

But today we're actually here talking about a fairly pressing subject, right?

 Kristin Marshall

Yes, we're here to talk about something that's very timely and completely preventable. No one ever thinks that it could happen to them, but it can.

 Matt Marshall

Is it?

 Kristin Marshall

O, we're introducing your audience today to a National Safety Council campaign called look before you lock. This is a prevention campaign to keep children from hyperthermia. Commonly referred to as heatstroke, and that they would get primarily from hot vehicles and.

 Kristin Marshall

Everything I discuss here today. I'm not a professional that works for National Safety Council, but I do.

 Kristin Marshall

I did take a seminar with them in order that I may obtain education that I can impart them to the parents I work with, and so these are the facts that I gathered from that.

 Kristin Marshall

Seminar that I went to so everything I discuss here today can be found on the NSC campaign website noheatstroke.org or if you need additional information about the National Safety Council you can visitnsc.org.

 Kristin Marshall

They also have a free course that you can take on heat stroke if you need it. Those ceu's because you're.

 Kristin Marshall

A caregiver or something like that.

 Matt Marshall

Yeah, and I actually took a look at the thensc.org website and for those prepared in this mindless minded folks out there as well. There's a lot of information.

 Matt Marshall

On emergency preparedness and other training classes that can also be be obtained.

 Matt Marshall

But thanks for guiding people to those sites. I'm not much of a medical guy, so some of these words that you speak go right by me. Can you take just a few moments?

 Matt Marshall

To explain, hyperthermia and I also get confused sometimes between the Hypo and hyper. Or could you just explain a little bit?

 Kristin Marshall

Yeah, sure Matt. I would love to try to straighten that out. It is kind of confusing. They sound very similar, so hyperthermia it means your body heat regulation system can't handle the heat in your environment and then hypothermia is when your body heat regulation system can't keep up with the.

 Kristin Marshall

Cold in your environment and the interesting thing to note about this is that a child regulatory heating system that means the way they internally.

 Kristin Marshall

Gather heat and hold it and it heats up three to five times faster than adults, which is great if it's cold outside, because that's a great surviving technique is that child can heat up best, but it's not so great if the child were to be in a hot car.

 Kristin Marshall

And so that's something that we need to keep in mind. The interesting thing about body temperature is they say when you reach a temperature of 104 and higher, that's when your cells start to shut down, and if you reach a internal body temperature of 107.

 Kristin Marshall

They say that death would be any moment, so that is why we're here talking about kids that get locked into a hot car and how deadly it can be for them.

 Matt Marshall

Well, now that's a pretty scary subject, but.

 Matt Marshall

No mindful parent would ever leave their kid in a vehicle right, especially on a hot day. We've all heard the stories.

 Kristin Marshall

The truth of the matter is, in 2018 in 2019.

 Kristin Marshall

Those both were very high years. Over 50 deaths each year, and those parents, I'm sure would give anything to take that day back and have a different outcome.

 Kristin Marshall

The thing that people need to remember is that 53% of the time.

 Kristin Marshall

Those parents don't intend for this to happen at all. It was something that distracted them. They forgot. And sadly, we now know from statistics that were gathered that it's about 1/4 of the time the children actually gained the access to those vehicles without any adult knowing.

 Kristin Marshall

And it's a variety of temperatures that we have seen this happen in all sorts of regions in the country.

 Kristin Marshall

The NFC has done experiments and determined that there really is no safe temperature in which you can leave a child alone and it be.

 Kristin Marshall

And the majority of these days happen between Memorial Day and Labor Day. But they have happened outside of those days.

 Matt Marshall

Memorial Day and Labor Day, so that if you calculated out 50 deaths during that period of time, that could be a death everyone.

 Matt Marshall

Two or three days, right?

 Kristin Marshall

Yeah, that's 96 days to 99 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day. So you're correct, it was very alarming in 2018 and 2019 to those who are gathering the statistic.

 Kristin Marshall

Six, we've been fortunate enough that that has slowed down and we're hoping with this campaign that we can keep those numbers down.

 Matt Marshall

Yeah, excellent. Is there a more common age? I mean the the numbers we were listening earlier. It seemed to range, but is there a more common range in which the deaths occur?

 Kristin Marshall

If listeners were listening carefully at the beginning of the show, I'm sure they heard that there was an 11 year old and also just a few months old. So there's a broad range of ages there that this can happen in.

 Kristin Marshall

I think you need to keep in mind that even though they say 26 months is the average age that this happens to, I would think that's mainly because at 26 months you're still in a car seat strapped in and you can't get out, and that would play a bigger role.

 Kristin Marshall

I think for those.

 Matt Marshall

Likely, so it sounds like though we're talking mostly about hotter days. Is it only in extreme heat that we need to be concerned?

 Kristin Marshall

And not at all, unfortunately, and that's the thing that I think perplexes people. A lot of parents when I talk to them.

 Kristin Marshall

They're not surprised when you know it's 90 degrees outside. Yes, that could happen to my kid maybe 80 degrees.

 Kristin Marshall

Yeah yeah, I could see that happening, but when I tell them no as low as 70 degrees, that's.

 Kristin Marshall

The first temperature of an an incident this year that it happened that I so many of the parents are just utterly shocked by that.

 Kristin Marshall

And the truth is, if you go back, you'll see very low temperatures that this happens in, but a lot of people scratch their heads and they think, well, what if I cracked the windows?

 Kristin Marshall

Wouldn't that make it OK? But let me tell you what the NSC did. They funded an experiment and they.

 Kristin Marshall

Put a car out there, couple cars.

 Kristin Marshall

And the reason they tried a couple cars is they wanted to see if the make of the car, the interior of the car had any effect on how it heated up and one of the things that did come out of the study was the interior of the car does play a role in how quickly it heats up.

 Kristin Marshall

But they all heat up very high.

 Kristin Marshall

And so I would say the first thing you need to know is that they did this experiment when it was 75 degrees outside and the windows all of them were cracked open a few inches and what they found is that temperature inside that car at 10 minutes was 94 degrees. They came back at 20 minutes.

 Kristin Marshall

Later and it was 104 degrees and if you remember at the top of the show I said that they know that cells can start breaking down at 104.

 Kristin Marshall

That same car they came back at 30 minutes and it was 109 degrees in that car and we know if a child warms up three to five times faster than an adult. Certainly we can say that at 109 degrees that is fatal for a child.

 Kristin Marshall

These statistics change quickly, though with the temperature changes so.

 Kristin Marshall

So most of our summer days between Memorial Day and Labor Day are not at 75 degrees. They're much higher when it's 86 degrees outside that same car.

 Kristin Marshall

10 minutes becomes 104 degrees and then within 20 minutes is 114 degrees.

 Kristin Marshall

Then numbers go up even quicker when it's 90 degrees outside, which a lot of our days have been around 90 degrees, and so within 10 minutes they've showed that at 90 degrees.

 Kristin Marshall

That car is fatal in 10 minutes.

 Kristin Marshall

And I I think about how many parents come home from grocery shopping.

 Kristin Marshall

And their child's asleep in the car. And they're thinking I'm just going to take my groceries inside and I'll come back out and get them because they're sleeping.

 Kristin Marshall

I don't want to disturb them, no, don't do that. That's fatal. Never, never, never leave a child unattended in a car.

 Matt Marshall

Absolutely, so I'm a pretty technical guy, so I.

 Matt Marshall

I tend to lean in this direction to solve most problems and but my question is, is there any technology that can help with this?

 Kristin Marshall

So there is some technology, but what I would caution your listeners is technology only offers one part of protection. And also we need to keep in mind that technology.

 Kristin Marshall

Is only going to be as good as the user and as good as the solution that it was designed for? What does that mean that means?

 Kristin Marshall

Well, in 2017 GM they did start putting rear seat reminders in some of their models, which is great and then very quickly most of the manufacturers out there decided yes this is a feature that we all need to have. So most car manufacturers are going to have.

 Kristin Marshall

Some kind of car seat reminder by the year 2025. There are some car seats out there that do have some kind of reminder system. I believe Evenflo does.

 Kristin Marshall

But here's The thing is, it's really a behavioral problem, and the best thing that could happen is if we all got in the habit of looking before we lock, because some of these kids are not going to be in a car seat, a rear seat reminder is not going to help a situation.

 Kristin Marshall

Where a child gained access to a car without an adult knowing.

 Matt Marshall

Right, so so technology can offer only one part.

 Matt Marshall

Do you have any other tips for our listeners?

 Kristin Marshall

Yes, I do, you know, make it a habit to look before you lock your car every single time.

 Kristin Marshall

And some other things that you can try to keep in mind is if you are driving a child, make sure that after you've gotten them in correctly and buckled in safely to the car, that maybe you put something that you need in the floorboard by their car seat, so that would be like a shoe.

 Kristin Marshall

A cell phone, a purse, a backpack, something that you would have to physically get before you walked away from your car. That would help you remember to look in the car.

 Kristin Marshall

Let's say that you're in a situation where maybe it's not your typical day to take the child to a babysitter or childcare provider.

 Kristin Marshall

And So what you could do is have a parent set an alarm on their computer or their phone to remind them to check.

 Kristin Marshall

Did the child get to the place they were supposed to be?

 Kristin Marshall

Going, it's great if you can set something up with your babysitter or provider to actually call you. If your child does not show up at intended time. Another thing to kind of keep in mind is some people have tried to do a stuffed toy.

 Kristin Marshall

That's in the car seat and then they move it up to the front seat. I know that in my situation, my children, which you may have heard in the background.

 Kristin Marshall

They would have thought to have that toy and that would not have stayed up in the front to remind me to look in the back, but my kids were loud.

 Kristin Marshall

The other thing I think that you need to remember to do is really watch out for any change in your routine.

 Kristin Marshall

That's when the majority of these things happen is when there's been a distraction or change in the routine. Consider using technology as it does become available. That's certainly something that.

 Kristin Marshall

We can all keep in mind, but the best thing really is to look before you lock.

 Matt Marshall

O Kristen, you're a parent educator. Would you consider this mainly?

 Kristin Marshall

For parents, no, not really, because this can happen to anyone. If you live next to kids, this could be a situation where a child unintentionally gets in your car. The campaign is.

 Kristin Marshall

Actually, for everyone we want all people to look before they look.

 Kristin Marshall

In addition to this, we really need to make sure we are keeping our vehicles locked when we walk away.

 Matt Marshall

Yeah, and we we should all be doing this anyways as preparedness minded people we should be locking our doors to keep out the bad guys of course.

 Kristin Marshall

Yeah, that's right and we really should also be teaching our kids that from a very early age. I would say as soon as they can crawl around and stuff like that, go ahead and teach them where the horn is in the car and that way if they do get trapped inside, they know how to honk that horn to alert everyone that they are still on the.

 Kristin Marshall

But we really need to be teaching kids in general that you avoid playing in cars. They are not.

 Kristin Marshall

A play place at all.

 Matt Marshall

Well Kristen, these are all great tips on how to prevent these scenarios from occurring. Do you have any final items you think would help the audience?

 Kristin Marshall

Yes, in almost all these cases an adult got distracted. I would really caution if you are a person that is taking a child to a caregiver.

 Kristin Marshall

Or to a care center, and it's not in your routine that you would avoid being distracted. Don't take those phone calls, just wait until after you've dropped the child off and whether you're at a public place, a party, your own home. If a small child goes.

 Kristin Marshall

Missing the first thing that the National Safety Council advises people to do is to go check bodies of water.

 Kristin Marshall

Any body of water that's close by that the child could have gained access to should be checked first.

 Kristin Marshall

And then once it's determined that the child is not in a body of water, they need to go and check every vehicle within walking distance. Why they are calling the police for help. And lastly, always remember to look before you lock.

 Matt Marshall

Well, there you have it folks. We really hope you've gained some knowledge after this show. I know I have.

 Matt Marshall

Kristen, thank you so much for joining us.

 Kristin Marshall

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you so much for having.

 Matt Marshall

Me until next time remember with preparedness comes comfort with preparedness. Comes peace, something we could all use a bit more of this is Matt Marshall signing off.