A three-year-old girl remains in a critical condition after she was found unconscious in a bus parked outside a childcare centre in central Queensland.
Police say Nevaeh Austin was left unattended for six hours in hot temperatures outside Le Smileys Early Learning Centre in Gracemere, near Rockhampton, on Wednesday afternoon.
Rockhampton reached a maximum temperatures of 29.2 degrees on Wednesday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology website.
Paramedics responded at 3pm and took Nevaeh to Rockhampton hospital, before she was airlifted to the Queensland Children’s hospital overnight, where she remains in a stable but critical condition.
Capricornia police district detective inspector Darrin Shadlow said Nevaeh was the only child left on the bus and that two staff had been working on the vehicle before the incident.
“When they returned to the centre, the driver and one other person who were in the bus at the time had forgotten that she was there,” Shadlow told reporters on Thursday.
“In the afternoon, the staff found her on the bus. She was taken into the centre where they were performing CPR and triple [zero] were called.”
Shadlow said police would investigate whether staff had breached procedures that were put in place after the death of a child in a minibus in Cairns in 2020.
He said Nevaeh’s family was “distraught” and currently in Brisbane awaiting news about her condition.
In a statement issued on behalf of the family on Wednesday, police asked media to respect their privacy.
Brittany Lauga, Queensland’s assistant minister for education, said Nevaeh was “fighting for her life” and that the incident “simply shouldn’t have happened.”
“I know this little girl is very much in the thoughts of all of us … wishing for a full recovery. My thoughts are with this little girl’s family and friends,” she said.
“Families need to have peace of mind that when they send their children off to school, kindy or daycare, they will come home safe.
“We don’t yet know the full circumstances of what has occurred but, of course, there will be a full inquiry.”
The Guardian has contacted Le Smileys Early Learning Centre for comment.
