Kids found trapped in hot car's trunk

HOUSTON A four-year-old boy was still recovering at Texas Children's Hospital on Wednesday night. His three-year-old brother was released earlier in the day. It has been days since they were found locked in a trunk, sick from the heat.

Temperatures Sunday afternoon reached near 100 degrees, the day four-year-old Omar Hera and his three-year-old brother Miguel somehow got locked in the trunk of a car in the family's driveway off Jimbo Lane in northwest Harris County.

Their aunt, Rosa Hera, was babysitting and says suddenly they were gone and she couldn't find them.

"I didn't think, I didn't think they would have been in the trunk," Rosa said. "That never crossed my mind."

Hera, her sister and neighbors searched for the boys for at least half an hour before she noticed the lights on in their mother's car.

"That's whenever I heard the kids crying," she said. "I heard one of them. He was crying."

The boys were alive, but clearly very sick from the extreme heat. One of them was unconscious.

"Their temperatures when they arrived at the hospital were 105 and 107," Child Protective Services Spokeswoman Estella Olguin said.

Doctors say heat stroke happens when the body's temperature rises above 104 degrees. A body temperature of 107 degrees can be lethal.

Now, Omar, whose temperature reached 107 degrees, is still recovering, although the family says he appears to be doing better.

Despite the boys' ordeal in the hot car, they're the lucky ones. So far, eight children in Texas have died in hot cars this year.

"Just keep an eye on your kids just because nobody knows," Hera said.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office is investigating, but at this point, the incident appears to be an accident.