A mother has shared the heart-wrenching story of the day she lost her nine-month-old son due to a tragic oversight. On March 30, 2007, Raelyn Balfour experienced a routine workday but her normalcy shattered when the child minder called. The previous evening, her son Bryce had a cold and was restless, which prompted the babysitter to check on him the next day. “What do you mean? Bryce is with you,” Raelyn responded, confused. It was then she learned the horrifying truth — she had forgotten to drop Bryce at the babysitter’s house.
Frantically, Raelyn raced to her car where she discovered Bryce, still buckled in his car seat. Tragically, he had been left there for over seven hours on a day when temperatures inside the car soared to 120°F. “I got to the car and my nine-month-old son was still strapped into his car seat,” she told The Sun. “He had been there all day. He wasn’t moving or breathing.”
Raelyn was overcome with despair: “I was hysterical. I screamed for help and for an ambulance. I started giving him CPR until the ambulance arrived and my baby was rushed to hospital. I was wracked with hysteria, it felt like I was living in a nightmare.” Despite the desperate attempts to save him, Bryce was pronounced dead at the hospital from hypothermia.
The grief and guilt that followed were overwhelming for Raelyn. “No parent should have to deal with that. No one should have to try to save their child’s life from their own terrible mistake,” she expressed. “I paid the ultimate price and I will never have real peace again, I am begging people to be careful. The only time I will be able to make amends properly is when I see him in heaven.”
In the aftermath of this tragedy, Raelyn faced second-degree murder charges but was acquitted in 2008. Experts testified that the sleep-deprived mom had suffered from a false memory, a result of being thrown off from her usual routine.
Unfortunately, Bryce’s case is not isolated. Over 1,000 children in the US have died from heatstroke in hot cars since 1990, as reported by NBC Washington. Motivated by their painful loss, Raelyn and her husband have advocated for preventive measures against such incidents. They supported the Hot Cars Act of 2021, legislation mandating that new passenger vehicles be equipped with a child safety alert system. The bill passed Congress and was signed into law by President Biden in November of the same year. Implementation is expected in the near future, aiming to prevent further tragedies.
Through their advocacy and sharing their story, Raelyn hopes to warn others about the dangers of leaving children unattended in vehicles and the irreversible consequences that can ensue.