3-year-old recovering after 8-hour ordeal in school bus

Nguyen Tan Loi, a student of the Do Re Mi Kindergarten in Tien Du District in the northern province of Bac Ninh was found unconscious on the floor of a bus at about 3:45 p.m. last Friday.

The bus, driven by Nguyen Cong Ty, 43, set out at 6:30 a.m. to pick up nine children. Only eight were dropped off at the kindergarten at 8 a.m, leaving Loi alone in it.

The bus was then parked in front of the kindergarten till the afternoon. A window remained open 10 cm wide during the eight hours Loi was left alone in it, local reports said.

Loi was taken to Hanoi's Vietnam National Children’s Hospital, where Doctor Ta Anh Tuan, head of its Intensive Care Unit, said the boy had suffered heat stroke, panic, fever, hypoglycemia and dehydration. Loi had regained consciousness as of Monday, but is still being treated for pneumonia symptoms.

The kindergarten, owned by 42-year-old Duong Thi Hop, Ty’s wife, was suspended by the Hoan Son Commune People’s Committee on Monday.

Police are investigating the case. The shocking neglect comes barely a month after 6-year-old Le Hoang Long, a student of the Gateway International School in Hanoi’s Cau Giay district, died after allegedly being abandoned in his school bus for nine hours.

The cause of death was determined to be respiratory failure and heat stroke, but his family’s lawyers have demanded that authorities provide more details and clarifications.

Two people, the bus’s monitor and driver, are being investigated for involuntary manslaughter while the school’s responsibility is yet to be ascertained, according to authorities.