MADURAI: Doctors have claimed that the children who were trapped inside the car for around three hours must have died due to suffocation which was caused due to excess of carbon-dioxide and carbon monoxide, which are poisonous gases.
“The children were in the car for a long time without water. When the temperature in the car increased, the children will automatically sweat more, which results in dehydration of their bodies”, the doctors who examined their bodies stated.
When the children’s body temperature crossed 105 degrees Fahrenheit, they would have gone unconscious,” said Dr A Kannan, Head of the Department of Pediatrics, Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre. “Children are more vulnerable and are at higher risk for heat-related illness than adults, since the bodies of children are only in the developing stages,” Kannan further added.
Besides, due to lack of oxygen supply to the brain the children would have fallen unconscious, he noted. They would have entered the coma stage soon and later passed away,” said Dr S Vadivel Murugan, Medical Superintendent of the Government Rajaji Hospital.
Within the first 30 minutes, oxygen in the vehicle should have been exhausted. Because four children would have been inhaling the oxygen inside the car, the amount of oxygen must have come down fast”. Besides, the children were releasing carbon dioxide within the closed atmosphere in the car. Lack of oxygen to the brain results in damage of brain cells of children” he added.
“The temperature in a normal car is around 72 degrees Fahrenheit, which increase by 30 to 40 degrees in an hour and since the car was parked for months, the vacuum must have been more in the car without much oxygen,” said D Kritish Shenoy, an automobile engineer.
He added that with excess of carbon dioxide and lack of oxygen with carbon molecules pairing it results in carbon monoxide which is poisonous. Further hydraulic fluid is used for functioning of the clutches in the vehicle where gas is not involved.