The San Antonio Police Department is investigating a home daycare center after an infant allegedly died while taking a nap.
Questions are being raised by the 5-month-old’s grieving mother about how her healthy baby girl died under the supervision of 5 Little Hearts in-home center, reports MySA.
Mila Rose Wallace was pronounced dead on Monday.
The cause of the infant’s sudden unexplained death has not yet been determined. But her mom, Hope Wallace, finds it hard to believe her daughter simply died of natural causes. She said:
“She was a really good baby, really good, really healthy.”
Mila wasn’t sick and didn’t have any known health issues. Her mother recalls the heart-rending moment she learned her daughter didn’t wake up from her nap.
Hope said she received a call from the center’s operator April Lozano and was told:
“Your child is not breathing.”
The devastated mom remembers “angrily” driving over to the daycare and demanding emergency management services tell her if her baby was still alive.
Police investigating after infant dies at #SanAntonio day care https://t.co/YLPwlcGZIo pic.twitter.com/aTCp3V6SDw
— Greater San Antonio (@GreaterSATx) February 6, 2019
She remembers EMS telling her:
“I’m sorry, Ms. Wallace. She was already gone when they called me.”
Hope added:
“They said they needed to take her and get cleaned up. I don’t know what ‘cleaned-up’ means, because she’s a clean baby.”
The mother said she’s had her suspicions about the daycare center for a while now. And on the day Mila died her diaper bag was returned home with no missing diapers after 9 hours at the center. Hope said:
“That’s what she told me happened, but…that doesn’t seem right. My daughter always took naps with me and she always woke up. She was just healthy, that’s why I don’t feel it was anything natural. She was too healthy.”
Fox 28 reports, the Department of Family and Protective Services released a statement about Mila’s death at 5 Little Hearts center:
DFPS will investigate whether or not abuse/neglect occurred in this case, and we will also investigate the daycare operation for any deficiencies in state standards.
According to MySA, the daycare was cited for safety issues in the past. The center has not commented on the incident.
No one has been arrested on criminal charges yet. The daycare center has been shut down during the investigation.
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