Florida family sues daycare after staff failed to revive 9-month-old son after he was found unconscious
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA: A Florida family is suing a daycare center after their 9-month-old son was found comatose and later declared dead at a hospital in July. Tayvon Tomlin's family has filed a lawsuit against Lincoln Marti Schools, which has disputed the allegations.
Three months after it happened, Tayvon Tomlin's death remains somewhat mysterious. It is known that on July 18, 2022, the boy stopped breathing when he was at Lincoln Marti Child Care. The daycare staff attempted to revive the toddler, but to no avail. Later that day, in a nearby hospital, the 9-month-old passed away.
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“They haven’t given us any answers,” said Keiara Whorely, the child’s mother, to Local 10 News. “The day it happened, they weren’t even the ones who called and told me.”
The family claims that the daycare in Homestead is understaffed with untrained employees.
Tayvon was dropped off by his parents before daycare staff members placed him “in an infant room with seven other infants”, according to the six-page lawsuit Whorley and the slain boy's father, Devonte Tomlin, filed in Miami-Dade County court.
“You have to have at least one provider for every four infants. Lincoln Marti had one for every eight infants,” said attorney Michael Levine.
The complaint claims that a surveillance camera inside the baby room was inoperative, but horrifying video footage that have now been made public by the family's attorneys show what they claim to be insufficient attempts to revive the limp and comatose baby.
“The infant room in which Tayvon was placed had a surveillance camera present, but the camera was not operational as it had been broken for several months,” the filing says. “While in the infant room, Tayvon was under the supervision” of Rosario Soto Perez.
One of the videos shows a worker holding the kid face down and repeatedly smacking his back. In two other videos, a worker tries mouth-to-mouth while holding the child.
According to a report from the fire rescue team that got on the site, CPR wasn't being done. The incident allegedly took place in front of Tayvon's 4-year-old brother, who is still scarred by what he witnessed, according to the family.
“My son told me already he knew,” she said in comments to the TV station. “My son said, ‘The baby stopped breathing.'”
“I’m always going to be frustrated, hurt, crying, missing my baby,” said Whorely. “But all my fight is directed to this case and figuring out what’s going on.”
Many of the claims made in the lawsuit—including the one that there weren't enough caregivers to take care of all the infants at the daycare that day—are being disputed by Lincoln Marti.
In the meantime, Tayvon's family's attorneys are urging the State Attorney's Office to investigate the child's death and determine whether pressing charges are necessary.