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Babies In ICU After Left In Truck For 8 Hours

POSTED: Tuesday, September 2, 2008
UPDATED: 5:40 pm CDT September 2, 2008

A mother was accused of leaving her two babies inside a pickup truck for eight hours after she came home from a party, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

Rosenberg police said they got a call about two children found not breathing inside a vehicle at the Gegelskis Trailer Park in the 3300 block of Rychlik Drive at about 1 p.m. Monday.

Investigators went to the trailer park and found the 1-year-old and 2-year-old boys unconscious, unresponsive and breathing shallowly.

The children's mother, Sandra Mendoza, told investigators that she, her husband and the children were at a party at her mother's house the night before.

Mendoza, 20, said she got home at about 5 a.m., went into the house and fell asleep.

She said she woke up at 1 p.m. and realized the children were inside the truck, strapped in their car seats. She said she got them out and sprayed them with a garden hose to try and cool them off.

Neighbors also tried to help.

"I seen them laying on the ground. They were purple and blue and it looked like they drowned. And they were just with their eyes wide open, their mouth open -- not breathing or anything," Norma Sierra said. "It's just not human for you to forget your kids. Maybe a minute or two, but not hours and hours and hours -- more than eight hours, that's ridiculous."

The babies were taken to Oak Bend Medical Center and placed in the intensive care unit. One of the boys was placed on a ventilator.

Mendoza told detectives that she had been drinking at the party. But when police arrived Monday afternoon, they found no obvious signs of alcohol use.

"She was dressed like she just came back from the club -- her clubbing clothes on, backless outfit," Sierra said.

Detectives wanted to know how hot a truck could get at 1 p.m., so they placed a thermometer in a similar vehicle. In less than 20 minutes, the thermometer reading hit the maximum of 120 degrees.

Mendoza was charged with two counts of felony injury to a child. The charge could change depending on the boys' conditions.

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