Baby in Quito nursery passed away; the mother asks that the center be closed

On New Year's Eve , little Leah would wear new clothes. But her parents had to put those clothes on her for her funeral, three days before the minor turned 9 months old.

After a month and a half attending a private children's center in Quito, the baby was adapting, says her mother, Nerely Marcano . She did not think that on Friday, December 27, 2019, she would come looking for her and would not find her in the nursery but in a hospital, lifeless.

After difficult days, the mother spoke with EL COMERCIO, with the aim that more people know what happened to her baby . "I want justice to be done and for that center to be closed because I don't want another mother to go through this pain."

On the last Friday of 2019, Nerely left her baby in the children's center located in the north of Quito , at 09:00, as she had done the previous weeks. The little girl was in her adaptation period , so at 12:30 her mother picked her up every day.

But that day, when she arrived, she found the worst news. Her daughter was not in the center. The caregivers at the site told him that they took the minor to the San Francisco de Carcelén Hospital because "she had very low vital signs and she did not react, but she is fine." She was asked if she had fed him something that could harm him or if she had the flu.

Upon arriving at the Social Security health home , the doctor told Nerely that her baby arrived without vital signs and that they tried to revive her several times without success.

Nerely and her husband expected a miracle from her. That is why, when they were taken to identify the body of the little girl, they prayed with the hope that everything would be a nightmare, recalls the mother of little Leah , who came, like many other Venezuelans, to start over in Ecuador .

Leah was born in this country and despite her departure, Nerely assures, she will stay. "Here my daughter died and here they bury me," she says, affected by the death of her only descendant.

The Prosecutor 's Office is investigating what happened. The caregiver is in pretrial detention . The mother does not understand why the baby did not receive the care she should have. She discovered that the caretaker of the minor was an intern , she did not know that she was in charge of the girl. She assures that she did not know of the existence of hammocks on the site either, since when she met them they were not in the areas where the minors stay.

Nerely commented that, in her statement , the defendant recounted having put little Leah in a hammock to sleep and tied her with a scarf .

Apparently – detailed the mother – the girl she moved or tried to get out of the hammock and hanged herself.

“How is it that they have a hammock?” asks the mother, among other things. She also wonders why the children's center did not notify her of what had happened through a call , but instead she found out about it when she arrived to pick up her girl.

“Then I only received a call from the owner of the nursery , crying. But she was not at the site, when my daughter died she was at the beach”.

Sybel Martínez , vice president of the Quito Council for the Protection of Rights , heard about the case and contacted the family to offer them support. Martínez points out that it is necessary to know what the routes and protocols are for the case of private child development centers.

Together with the mother, the Council will begin an analysis to determine if the center has the corresponding permits to operate and if it is attached to the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES) or the Ministry of Education.

This newspaper requested information about the event from the MIES . Zone 9 of the State Portfolio indicated that technical reports on the case are currently being prepared. After having them, they will decide on the matter.

Her daughter, says Nerely, was always provided with the necessary care at home and she hoped that, while she was working, the place where she entrusted her little girl would take care of her. “If I had to go to the bathroom I took her with me and sat her on my leg. She did not deserve to die suffering while she hanged herself.”

The mother of the family asks that the center be closed and that the people who work there no longer deal with children.

She worries –says Sybel Martínez- that the case will go unpunished , “that nothing will be done and that another center will be reopened, perhaps with another name, with the same people”. Even though she has permits, she adds, "we don't know if the entity in charge does an audit , sees what is happening and how they are handled."

The clothes that Nerely put on her baby for her funeral were not the only ones that the little girl did not enjoy. She also had bought what she would wear on her first birthday from her. Today, in the midst of psychological treatment to try to overcome the trauma of her baby's death, the mother seeks resignation and justice for Leah.