A 16-month-old girl who died at a Rancho San Diego daycare in April asphyxiated after getting her head wedged between a plastic cot placed on top of a portable crib and the crib railing, according to a Medical Examiner’s Office report released this week.
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The child, Eris Ahmad-Alas, died April 8 at Sharp Grossmont Hospital after she was found unresponsive by the daycare provider, who had put the child down for a nap.
The caregiver, who was not identified by name, said she returned to the room to change the child’s diaper and prepare her for her father to pick up. She said the girl “did not look well” and was “bluish in color,” according to the autopsy and investigative report done by the medical examiner’s office.
The caregiver took her out to the living room, called 911 and started CPR. Paramedics administered advanced cardiac life support on the child and rushed her to the hospital, where a doctor worked another half hour before pronouncing her dead around 12:30 p.m.
It was the fourth day the child had gone to the Snow Angels Childcare and Preschool on Penasco Road, a business that had operated for 13 years. It is now listed online as being permanently closed. The owner of the daycare could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The child was crying when she was dropped off around 8 a.m., but when the daycare owner sent a picture to her mother about 20 minutes later, the girl was “smiling and appearing happy,” the report stated.
According to the report, Snow Angels Childcare and Preschool typically had no more than four children at once at the site, the report said. The day the girl died, there was only one other child at the facility.
The daycare owner told a medical examiner’s investigator that she had put the child down for a nap around 10:30 a.m. and placed a “cover with a central mesh center” on top of the crib, “in case the decedent attempted to get out of the crib,” according to the report.
The caregiver normally had the crib in the living room, but that day it was in a back bedroom that was “quieter and darker” so the child could sleep, the report said.
The toddler stopped crying about 15 minutes after she had been put down for a nap.
The daycare provider checked on her around 11 and found her lying on her left side, apparently asleep. There was a blanket near the back of her head, but it wasn’t covering her face. When the provider returned around 11:30, about half an hour before the girl’s father was set to pick her up, the child was unresponsive.
Deputy Medical Examiner Jason Tovar said the child had been found “with her head wedged between a plastic cot that was placed on top of the (portable crib) and the railing” of the crib.
“When the cot was removed by the day care provider, (the girl) fell to the floor of the pack and play (portable crib) unresponsive,” Tovar said in his report.
Tovar said the cause of death was asphyxia due to neck compression and found the manner of death to be an accident.
The county Sheriff’s Office has been investigating the death. No arrests have been made.
The ongoing investigation will consider the newly released medical examiner’s report, said sheriff’s Lt. Juan Marquez.
“The District Attorney’s Office will make the ultimate decision whether there will be charges or not once the investigation is complete and presented to the DA’s Office,” Marquez said in an email.
He said the lead investigator on the case is in constant communication with the child’s family. “They are still going through a difficult time,” he said.
Before the death at the house, Snow Angels had nearly no citations or issues with the state Department of Social Services, according to the business’ licensing file reviewed by the Union-Tribune.
The family-owned and -operated business initially ran into issues with bathroom cleaning products being within reach of children and its pool fence in the backyard not being high enough before they opened, according to a pre-licensure visit.
But once those issues were resolved, random drop-in visits from Social Services workers over the next decade yielded no citations or other issues.
An April 10 evaluation in response to the child’s death resulted in five citations that included loose clothing being in the portable crib area, the caregiver allegedly not checking on the child every 15 minutes while the child was napping, and closing the door to the master bedroom when it should have remained open. The daycare provider was also cited for allegedly putting the child down to nap in an “off-limits” room as designated on a map of her home on file with Social Services.
During the evaluation, no children were at the daycare facility. Officials at Social Services said the daycare had informed the department of the death within 24 hours.