An infant in a Hastings, Minn., home day-care died after the day-care provider couldn't get the baby boy to fall asleep in a crib, and instead put him on his stomach on a blanket on a carpeted floor, according to a Minnesota Department of Human Services report on the Jan. 25 death.
The provider, Ann Quigley, had her child care license revoked because of this clear deviation from safe-sleep policies in Minnesota, and because she then left the baby unsupervised in that position for 10 to 15 minutes, the state report indicated.
The Star Tribune reported on this infant death and one other that occurred in licensed child care so far this year, but the state report offered new details:
After discovering the unresponsive baby, Quigley attempted CPR and called 911. She then gave authorities "conflicting information" about whether the baby had been placed in a crib or not. When law enforcement and social services personnel in Dakota County tried to reach her to clear that question up, she did respond.
The report was issued April 25, and released Thursday in a batch of child care licensing reports.
The circumstances of the death match findings of the Star Tribune's 2012 investigation of deaths in Minnesota child care facilities. The investigation found that inadequate supervision and safe-sleep violations were common in the rising number of deaths in the state -- almost all of which occurred in licensed homes.
While the cases might be completely different, the death in the Quigley child care has some echoes of the death of an infant in the Eagan child care of Beverly Greenagel. The infant who died in Greenagel's care had been left unattended while sleeping face down on a blanket on a floor, according to state reports. Greenagel has since been charged with manslaughter in the death.
