According to our friends at NewsChannel9, the family of Warren Hunt is asking for $5 million dollars from the parent company of Childcare Network. Their four-month-old baby died after East Ridge daycare workers found him unresponsive in November.
According to the Hamilton County medical examiner, the baby died because his airway was obstructed by bedding. The lawsuit claims Childcare Network workers placed Warren on his back on a blanket, saw him roll over to his stomach, and “turned their attention to other tasks” instead of intervening. The suit also says Childcare Network did not adequately train its employees in CPR, and the daycare workers who found Warren not breathing didn’t know how to immediately help him. The lawsuit says this lack of training contributed to an “unnecessary delay in medical care.” The four-month-old died a month later in Children’s Hospital at Erlanger.
The state of Tennessee followed up with the Child Care Network after the incident, and issued the center four violations, including 2 violations for safe sleep, 1 violation for supervision, and 1 violation for management due to inadequate training and program oversight. Between December and February, the state has visited the facility nine times for monitoring. No further violations were found during those visits.
The report found that “caregivers did not provide a required level of supervision to a 4 month old child on November the 9th. That child fell asleep after rolling onto his stomach. This lead to an emergency situation when the child stopped breathing. The incident occurred over a period of time that may have exceeded two minutes when caregivers were not watching the infant. Additionally caregivers failed to immediately begin CPR on the infant.”
The state ordered that the infant rooms at the center be closed, and that the employee who was in the room at the time of the incident undergo training, and not be allowed to be around children without supervision.
East Ridge Police did investigate the death, but closed their case when the Medical Examiner ruled it as accidental. The Department of Children’s Services is still investigating.
