Baby In Critical Condition After Being Left In Joliet Car For Two Hours

(CBS -- A mother apparently accidently left her baby in a car for hours on an 87 degree day in Joliet and he is now hospitalized in critical condition.

Police say it's no wonder the child was near death when rescuers got to him. His body temperature was 108 degrees, 10 degrees above normal.

When the child's mother parked her SUV in a downtown parking lot, she says she didn't know he was in the car seat in the back. She thought he was back home with her two other kids and their dad.

After spending two hours at a meeting at a title company across the street, she came back.

"She went and checked the vehicle and found him in the vehicle unresponsive, not breathing and that is when she saw our traffic enforcement officer and screamed for help," said Joliet Deputy Police Chief Alan Roechner.

Police and fire rescuers raced to the scene. Neighbor Frank Sirtoff watched them go to work.

"The diligency of our fire department and our responding units like the police department revived the child on the scene," he said.

They rushed him to nearby St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet where the boy suddenly went into cardiac arrest. He was then taken to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn in extremely critical condition. The boy's mother understandably shaken.

"People were holding her up she's just screaming," Sirtoff said. "It was so emotionally wrecking."

"Keep an eye on your kids and know when they're at and be responsible when it comes to that," said Roechner. "You have to check because it is so easy when you get caught up in everything else to forget thiings."

Since 1998 more than 600 children in the US have died of heat stroke when left unattended in vehicles.