Death of a child in a closed car: An unknown danger

The children left unattended in the stationary cars are exposed to many dangers like heat stroke, asphyxia by power windows, fires, carbon monoxide poisoning etc. Heat related fatality of the children is a well recognized problem in developed countries like the United States. In a developing country like India, the dangers associated with children and parked cars are yet to be recognized and conveyed to the normal population, who are seemingly ignorant about this issue. We present a case of a child who was found dead in a car parked in the driveway of a house. The child died due to aspiration of gastric contents which was evident from the histopathology of lungs. This case shows that not only established hyperthermia but also prodromal symptoms can result in death, especially in children. The authors intend to highlight the dangers associated with small children being left unattended or getting locked unintentionally in cars.