Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog
According to a recent news article from the Washington Post, the operator of a daycare facility has been arrested and charged in connection with what is believed to be a shaken baby injury to a nine-month-old child.
Witnesses say victim dropped her daughter off at the daycare center before going to work. Later that afternoon, daycare owner called 911. When first responders arrived, daycare owner allegedly told EMTs she gave the baby her bottle and placed her in a swing. She said the baby started to cry, but quickly stopped, so she assumed infant had fallen asleep. She went to answer a knock at the front door, and when she returned a few minutes later, the child wasn’t breathing. At this point, she told EMTs she performed CPR on the baby and got her to breathe again.
EMTs took the baby to Children’s National Medical Center, where doctors tell a different story. Court records show doctors saying infant had bleeding above two halves of her brain and the pattern of injuries suggest child was not breathing for an extended period of time. Hospital records indicate the baby was in the moderate to severe end of the spectrum used to quantify the severity of shaken baby syndrome.
The full extent of the baby’s daycare injury is not known at this time, but the article notes doctors are concerned about long-term vision problems and issues preventing her from fully closing her fists. Loss of muscle tone can indicate a serious problem.
As our Boston daycare injury attorneys understand, there is nothing scarier than getting a call from your child’s daycare facility in the middle of the day. Sometimes it is just to inform of an issue that is not necessarily all that serious. Perhaps your child is running a low-grade fever, or there was a fight between two children, and the daycare center just wanted to you to know about it before you arrived after work.
However, the reason for the fear when you see the daycare center’s number on your caller ID is because you know that something serious can happen. Many times even serious accidents are not always someone’s fault. Serious accident can happen without any negligence involved. Most daycare providers and employees truly care about children and enjoy their jobs. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and people who have no business caring for children are allowed to work at a daycare center.
If your child was injured at his or her daycare center and you have any reason to suspect negligence or an intentional act on behalf of the staff, you should contact an experienced daycare injury attorney as soon as possible. The sooner you act, the sooner an investigation can be started. This will generally increase the likelihood of obtaining and full and appropriate financial settlement or jury verdict should the case go to trial.
You should also make sure your child received prompt medical attention. Injuries to children are not always fully apparent to parents, especially in children who are not old enough to tell you where they are feeling pain or discomfort.
If you are injured in an accident in Boston, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.
Additional Resources:
Rockville day-care operator charged in ‘shaken baby syndrome’ case, March 27, 2015, Washington Post
More Blog Entries:
New Guidelines for Identifying Causes of Newborn Brain Injury, October 21, 2014, Boston Personal Injury Lawyer Blog