Beauty appointments don’t usually make national headlines. But 20-year-old Visalia mom Maya Hernandez has pleaded not guilty after she left her two young sons in a hot car for more than two hours while she had a lip filler procedure at a Bakersfield med spa. Her decision ended with the death of her 1-year-old, and her 2-year-old was hospitalized.
According to the Bakersfield Police, the young mom drove her Toyota Corolla hybrid to Always Beautiful Med Spa on June 29. She went in for an appointment mid-afternoon, which is anyway in the hottest part of a 99–101-degree day. Court documents say she left the boys strapped into their car seats and thought they’d be safe because the AC was running. But later, a dealership foreman explained that Corolla hybrids are designed to shut off after about an hour when there’s no interaction with the car.
When Hernandez finally walked out two hours later, she immediately sensed something was wrong. The 1-year-old was seizing and foaming at the mouth. Witnesses gave water to the children, and the mom tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before calling authorities. Bakersfield fire and EMS arrived at 4:45 pm. The infant died less than an hour later with a body temperature of 107 degrees. The 2-year-old survived, though and was treated at the hospital. The child has been placed in protective custody…