SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida woman left a 3-year-old girl in a vehicle overnight, where she was overheated and drifted in and out of consciousness.
A Seminole County Sheriff’s Office news release says investigators learned 33-year-old Casey Dyan Keller traveled to a liquor store Saturday night with three children, returned home but left the 3-year-old in the car.
Authorities tell news outlets Keller realized the child wasn’t in the apartment Sunday morning and called 911, claiming someone stole her car with the little girl inside.
Deputies responded to Vista Haven Apartments and found the girl inside the vehicle with the windows up.
Deputy Bill Dunn said she was “sweaty and limp” when he retrieved her from the vehicle, so he stuck her under his patrol car’s air conditioning vent and rushed her to a nearby hospital.
“I know the brain can only accept a certain degree before it gets damaged and so I put her face right underneath there just trying to cool her down, you know?” he told Fox 35.
Authorities say the child was in critical condition when she arrived. Dunn waited for hours at the emergency room until doctors assured him she would survive.
Dunn reunited with the little girl he saved after the child’s father called the sheriff’s office to thank him.
A photograph tweeted by the sheriff’s office showed the three-year-old hugging Dunn.
Keller was charged with child neglect with great bodily harm.
Today Deputy Bill Dunn reunited with this precious three-year-old girl he found unresponsive in a car Sunday. He pulled her out, put her under air conditioning in his cruiser, and rushed her to the hospital. We’re so glad she’s made a full recovery. Well done, Dunn! #WeAreSCSO pic.twitter.com/1hxU6sdME3
— Seminole County S.O. (@SeminoleSO) June 20, 2018
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