An infant that was badly burned Thursday evening is expected to survive.
According to the Sureté du Quebec, around 8 p.m. Thursday the baby suffered severe burns while sitting in a car seat that had been placed on a stove. The five-month-old girl arrived at Ste. Justine Hospital Thursday night in critical condition.
The girl's mother, Caroline Morin, spoke to a TV station on Friday morning and said the family had just returned home.
"My husband wanted to make a bottle, and he put the car seat on the stove," Morin told TVA.
Morin said she has told her husband many times not to put the car seat on the stove, and she believes that this time the stove was accidentally turned on when the child was placed there.
The girl's father injured his hands getting the child off the stove and out of the seat, while Morin went into shock.
The first person to respond to calls for help was a neighbour who lives across the hallway.
She told CTV that when she opened the front door to the home she saw lots of smoke, and saw Morin holding the child.
The neighbour took the crying child, wrapped her in a blanket, and spotted the burns on the girl's face.
Firefighters rushed to the home and dealt with the fire, then alerted police about what had occurred.
The girl was rushed to a Victoriaville hospital before being transferred to a burn centre at Ste. Justine Hospital in Montreal, and is expected to survive.
Both parents were also hospitalized overnight. The Sureté du Quebec talked to the parents early Friday morning to figure out why the infant was placed on the stove top.
"Our technicians were also were also on the scene in the last few hours but now the scene is completely done by our investigators. They are still working to find out exactly what happened last night," said SQ spokesperson Genevieve Bruneau.
"There are still witnesses to be met and with all those details and the scene they will be able to know exactly what happened."
At this point the SQ has not determined if it will recommend charges.
Advice for handling burns
Debbie Friedman, the trauma director at the MUHC, says when dealing with burns, the baby should be wrapped with cool towels as quickly as possible.
"You try to get the clothes off as fast as possible if you can but sometimes it might be burned onto their skin in which case you try to cover them up as quickly as possible with cool towels to try and cool down the burn and get help as quickly as possible," she said.
She also said parents should remember the best place for a car seat is the floor.
"We discourage putting it on high surfaces, whatever it is: table, counter, because kids can move a little and it's very easy for them to fall off."
