LAS VEGAS -- Metro has already investigated 19 cases of children being left unattended in an automobile this year.

The latest one was Tuesday night.

Metro arrested a woman when she returned to her vehicle with two other children.

The child is now being cared for by other family members, but because it’s a baby, there could be some long-term health problems.

Last year, approximately 67 cases of children left in vehicles came to the attention of Metro.

Add the 19 cases so far this year, and you have wonder how and why this happens, especially when temperatures are in the triple digits.

“Things that we worry about most is heat stroke and heat exhaustion,” said pediatrician Dr. Constantine George.

He said a child could become sick very quickly locked inside an automobile.

“They start sweating and get very tired, very irritable, and they are very fussy,” he said.

Those are the symptoms of heat exhaustion, a condition that takes just minutes to set in.

After a few more minutes, a child's condition can go from serious to critical.

What happens with heat stroke is a baby’s temperature goes up to 105 or 106 and even higher, causing the infant’s brain to overheat.

“Long and short of it, you end up causing massive brain damage,” George said.

“Leaving a child unsupervised in a car when you no longer have a line of sight can constitute child neglect, and you can be arrested for child neglect,” said Lisa Teele of Metro’s Abuse and Neglect division.

Teele said a child should never be left alone in a car, but especially when the temperatures skyrocket like they did between Sunday and Tuesday.

Anyone caught leaving a child in a car may spend the night at the Clark County Detention Center, explaining their actions to a judge.