A 119 emergency ambulance [Yonhap]
A 119 emergency ambulance [Yonhap]

A 1-year-old infant was found dead while napping at a daycare center in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, on Monday, prompting the child's mother to raise questions about the facility's care.

The mother, identified only as A, posted on social media Friday saying her son — "the treasure and everything of our family" — had died after being dropped off at the daycare center Monday.

According to A, she received a call from emergency responders at around 3:30 p.m. Monday informing her that her baby's heart had stopped while he was napping and that he was being transported to a nearby hospital.

When she arrived at the emergency room, medical staff were performing CPR in an attempt to save the child. Resuscitation efforts continued for about 50 minutes, but the infant ultimately died.

A said her baby had been healthy and showed no fever on the day he died, asking, "Does it make any sense that a perfectly healthy child dies for no reason while taking a nap?" She raised allegations about the circumstances surrounding his death.

A said she had reviewed the daycare's closed-circuit television footage with police and found that her son's napping spot had been directly beneath a camera, placing it in a blind spot. "I was furious to learn for the first time that my baby had been put to sleep in a blind spot," she said.

She said footage from that morning showed the child "playing brightly and healthily with his friends, with no signs of anything wrong right up until he was put down for his nap." After a teacher led him to his sleeping spot, she said, he was no longer visible on camera.

A also claimed that from 12:30 p.m. — when nap time began — until 3:04 p.m., no one checked on the child even once. "Even as other children woke up, had their snacks and made noise, no one looked in on him or tried to wake him," she said.

She added that at around 3:04 p.m., a teacher was seen on camera rushing over to the child as if suddenly realizing something was wrong. "As soon as she reached him, she picked him up and shook him, and then the director and other staff began emergency measures," A said. "Emergency services arrived at 3:09 p.m."

"There was no physical abuse — no hitting — but not checking on a child for more than two hours is neglect and dereliction of duty," A said. "The fact that the napping spot was in a blind spot is also a problem."

The infant had been found in cardiac arrest at around 3:10 p.m. Monday at the daycare center in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju. He was transferred to a nearby hospital while receiving emergency treatment from paramedics but was pronounced dead.

Police are investigating the exact circumstances of the incident based on interviews with daycare staff and analysis of the CCTV footage.


bbo@heraldcorp.com