The tragic incident of a 7-month-old baby boy freezing to death after his mother left him outside a balcony for five hours took place in eastern Russia. The incident occurred in the far-eastern Khabarovsk region on Sunday morning (Jan. 5). The 40-year-old mother from Nikolaevsk-on-Amur put her son outside the balcony to sleep in the fresh air, with the expectation of picking him up within a few minutes. However, she forgot about him and only remembered his whereabouts five hours later.
The boy succumbed to hypothermia as he was exposed to temperatures as low as -20C for an extended period. When the mother eventually retrieved him and brought him inside, it was too late as the baby was already lifeless and could not be revived. Hypothermia is caused by exposure to cold, leading to a decrease in the body’s core temperature, which was the boy’s cause of death.
Following this tragic incident, the region’s health ministry emphasized the importance of not leaving young children unattended outside. They stressed the need to be aware of the child’s whereabouts and to assist other children in danger, particularly during winter when lost or injured children can quickly become victims of low temperatures. The ministry issued this advice through their Instagram account as a response to the heartbreaking loss.