On Thursday at a Utah daycare center, a toddler was suffocated after an employee accidentally sat on the bean bag chair that the child was playing beneath.
The victim was Leonardo Sanchez, who would have turned 2-years-old on September 17. The tragic incident occurred at West Jordan Child Center on Redwood Road.
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Leonardo’s mother, Danielle Sanchez, never knew that on Thursday she would be seeing her child alive for the last time. She said of Leonardo, “He was a cute bundle of joy, he brought a lot of love.”
Danielle recalled her son always be the life of the party even at such a young age. Sanchez said that Leonardo was “just always wanting to have a good time, he would take one little thing and turn it into an adventure.”
“It’s a tragedy, it’s a tragedy what happened,” Sanchez stated. “It’s rough because you don’t know when the last time is you are going to hold your child.”
The police say that Leonardo was underneath a bean bag, and was suffocated after a daycare employee accidentally sat on him while reading a book to the rest of the children.
Sanchez believes that the accident could have been prevented, and is the process of seeking legal representation for the loss of her son.
“In my mind: My child is in your care, he suffocated under a bean bag, how does a 2-year-old, not even 2 yet, how does he get stuck under a bean bag? Something happened, I don’t know what,” she stated.
The West Jordan Child Center released this statement: “We regret deeply the tragic death of a young toddler at our daycare facility. No words adequately describe the depth of the sorrow we feel. And, of course, we do not pretend to understand how devastating this is for the family. We know the family well, we grieve with them, and we pray that God will provide them the comfort and peace they inevitably will need.”
The authorities are currently investigating if there were any safety violations that occurred in Leonardo’s death. The daycare has previously been in violation twice in the past five years. One violation was for having a lack of supervision on the facility’s patio area. The other was for hole in the fence where a child could have possibly escaped if unsupervised, according to Fox 2 Now.
A GoFundMe page has been set up in order to help the Sanchez family.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Sanchez family in this difficult time.
[H/T Fox 2 Now]
