Baby’s death at illegal daycare: PME reveals child died from suffocation; family blames negligence

Family members of a three-month-old baby, who died while at a daycare facility in Kaneville, East Bank Demerara (EBD), says that caregiver negligence led to the child’s death as the postmortem examination has revealed that suffocation as the cause of death.
The postmortem was conducted on Wednesday by pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh at the Georgetown Public Hospital’s mortuary.

Kyrie Anthony Nelson, of Lot 753 Fourth Drive, Kaneville, EBD, died on Friday afternoon while in a cradle at Mya’s Daycare.
Rebekha Anthony, a 23-year-old single mother of two, recalled dropping off her son at the daycare at approximately 08:00h before heading to work. The daycare is owned by a 56-year-old woman and the facility is being managed by two staff members.
Anthony received a call from one of the employees later in the day, informing her that her child was unresponsive. Upon arriving at the facility with her family, they found that the baby had not yet been taken to the hospital. By the time they arrived at the hospital, he was already blue and died shortly after.
Anthony explained that she had stayed at home following her son’s birth and had only recently returned to work, enrolling her child at the nearby daycare. With the postmortem results confirming suffocation, the family is demanding justice.

“I don’t even know how to explain this feeling… they said they fed my son and put him to lie down, but my son was not fed. When I went to the PME we were told that my son was not fed. My son died and it was like my son was hungry,” the grieving mother said.
“My baby was a healthy baby boy who suffered from no illness. I make sure I take him to do a regular check-up. The most my baby can do is smile and kick up his feet; he cannot turn over on his own. I don’t put my baby on his belly to sleep; he is just three months old,” the tearful mother said.
The Human Services and Social Security Ministry has stated that investigations revealed 24 children were registered at the illegal facility, including three three-month-old babies.

According to the Ministry, the last time documents were issued to Mya’s Daycare for renewing the Child Care Licence was on February 7, 2020.
The baby’s aunt, Shemelle Lloyd, said the family was unaware that the daycare was operating illegally.
“This left me disturbed that my nephew had to die like this. I can only imagine how he struggled and how he maybe punished. To me, they do not check on these babies regularly. A baby is supposed to be fed every two hours. How can you feed a baby at 9:00h and check on him back at 11:00h? His death was given as 14:01h. If he got up, you didn’t check him back? It is clear that my nephew was being neglected at this daycare,” the grieving aunt said.
“I have to get justice for my nephew … this isn’t easy for us. It was not until all of this happened that we became aware that the daycare was operating illegally and there were 24 kids to two teachers…how can this happen? Women have to go back to work three months after work and they don’t have any choice than to leave their children in the care of the daycare. I advise mothers to do background checks on these daycares,” Lloyd asked.
Meanwhile, the grieving mother said she hopes that whoever is responsible for her son’s death will face the full brunt of the law.
“I don’t even have the strength. This is really hard for me to know that I left my baby and put my trust in this daycare. I carried my smiling baby to the daycare. A healthy baby with no complaints to the daycare and had to go to the hospital and receive a dead child. It is really painful and heartbreaking. I don’t think I can ever get over this,” the child’s mother said as she burst into tears. (G9)