1/25/2008 11:17:00 AM Child minder case: A mother's anguish
A nasty break: La'Naiye in a plaster after suffering a spiral fracture of his right thigh. *Photo supplied
In good shape: La'Naiye Simmons, above, now 19 months, with his parents, Laneh Simmons, 22, and Kenwandee Robinson, 26, and La'Naiye's cousin, Donnikae Baker, 9. *Photo by Tim Hall
Parents — where you can get help
If you have concerns about your caregiver, or want to check if a childminder is properly licensed, call the Department of Health on 278-4900.
Alternatively, the Coalition for the Protection of Children can provide advice on all aspects of childcare and can be reached on 295-1150.
When Laneh Simmons left her son at his childminder one Monday morning, there was no doubt in her mind he would be perfectly safe.
After all, the 22-year-old mum had trusted baby La'Naiye countless times to Betty Jean Steede - a supposedly experienced professional with an unblemished record. But later that day Ms Simmons got the kind of phone call every parent dreads, and she became sickeningly aware that something had gone desperately wrong.
"I heard him crying in the background," Ms Simmons said. "But it was unlike any sound I had ever heard him make. It was a scream that went right through me and my stomach turned over."
Drama and pain would follow that day, but it was only the beginning of the ordeal for Ms Simmons and her son. Not only would five-month-old La'Naiye have to be nursed back to health from an injury he could not understand, but Ms Simmons and her family would have to endure a court case in which they themselves would be accused of hurting the baby boy.
The family's torment now appears to be at an end after Ms Steede, 50, of Swan's Bay Hill, Pembroke, was convicted of grievous bodily harm at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Ms Steede faces up to seven years in prison when she is sentenced in March.
However, Ms Simmons, a softly spoken woman from Mount Hill, Pembroke, is still angry that the court case became a drawn out affair. "If she had just held up her hands and admitted it... But she put us all through the court case, dragged up all the hard memories. Worst of all, she blamed us."
The drama began on October 30, 2006. After receiving that initial phone call at work, Ms Simmons, a picture framer, rushed to Mrs. Steede's house. The childminder met Ms Simmons outside and claimed she did not know why the boy was screaming.
Ms Simmons said: "She [Mrs. Steede] kept saying: 'What happened to him over the weekend? Did he fall down? Is he sick?' From the beginning she was trying to dodge out of it and to put it on us. She knew my son was badly hurt, and she wasted time trying to put herself in the clear."
Ms Simmons called her mother, Wendy Simmons-Baker, and together the women took La'Naiye to hospital. Ms. Simmons - who is unmarried but still in a relationship with the boy's father, Kenwandee Robinson, 26 - says her son was in agony and held his foot limp, "like a dog's paw."
Doctors who examined La'Naiye said he had suffered a spiral fracture - a particularly bad form of break - to his right thigh. The injury would have required significant force and left the leg "deformed and shortened and rotated at an unusual angle." Doctors also said such an injury could have been life-threatening if it had not been treated promptly.
It proved a painful recovery for the boy and his family. Ms Simmons, who sat in the public gallery and cried during the court case, said: "I had to hold his leg for the X-rays and I felt sick every time he screamed. When he was in the plaster he would wake up in the night screaming. A small boy can't understand why he can't move around."
Ms Steede originally told police she had caused La'Naiye's injury, but said it was an accident. She admitted she had "roughed him up" when changing him in a hurry, but hadn't meant to hurt him. However, by the time the case came to court, Ms Steede was pleading 'not guilty' and claimed the confession had been extracted under police pressure.
Her main defence in court was the idea that La'Naiye had somehow been hurt before arriving at her house, and it was only in changing him that the injury revealed itself. Ms Simmons said: "That hurt as much as anything. What she did, however she did it, was one thing. But then she blamed us, the family."
The prosecution ridiculed the notion that such a severe injury could have gone unnoticed, and although lawyers were unable to say exactly how the injury occurred, the jury passed a unanimous guilty verdict.
Unknown to Ms Simmons, Ms Steede had been operating illegally by looking after up to seven children at a time, when she should have been limited to three. It was also revealed in court that Ms Steede was unlicensed. The jury learned afterwards that she also has two prior convictions for drugs offences.
Ms Simmons - who was paying $150 per week to Ms Steede - said she had checked her paperwork, which seemed in order. She would like to see tighter regulations on caregivers to help parents make a more informed choice. "No parent wants to leave a child. We all have to, because we all have to work. I don't want this to happen to anybody else."
La'Naiye, now 19 months old, still has regular X-rays on his leg. But doctors believe he was young enough at the time of the injury to make a full recovery.
Posted: Thursday, February 07, 2008
Comment by:
A. Oliver
As the mother of an infant with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, otherwise known as "brittle bone disease," I have been following this story online. The “fracture cry” is distinguishable from any of the typical infant cries. It grips you at your very core- a signal to act IMMEDIATELY. In essence, it is a desperate plea of a nonverbal child for help. It is inconceivable that anyone could ignore an obviously nonambulatory child's SCREAMS of pain. A femur fracture, even nondisplaced, is horribly painful and I certainly hope little La’Naiye was properly medicated BEFORE his initial x-rays. I hope that the baby’s growth plate was not seriously affected and expect that he is receiving excellent follow up orthopedic care to facilitate his recovery.
Posted: Friday, January 25, 2008
Comment by:
J. Ingham
Betty we still support you. We will soon do so in public. Keep your head up just as you have been doing.
