When it comes to a child, parents don’t like to take chances.
They do everything possible to keep their children safe. If they need to find someone to care for the child while they work, they do so carefully. One family is now grieving the loss of their infant son after the woman they hired to care for the baby made a mistake that cost him his little life.
Shepard Dodd was only 11 weeks old when he passed away after being placed in his car seat by his babysitter while he napped. He was swaddled and unattended for around two hours in the unbuckled seat.
The woman claimed it was an accident, but the parents say it was preventable and that the sitter had already been warned about safe sleeping practices.
Shepard’s father, Derek, shared the heartbreaking story:
“We chose an in-home daycare provider in Oklahoma (where we reside) to watch Shepard. The woman was highly recommended by a friend and she would only watch teacher’s kids. This meant she would be closed during the summers and school breaks, which was great for us because I’m a teacher.
“On April 6, I left for work early and was able to kiss Shepard and Ali goodbye. I will never forget him looking over for me and smiling. Shepard had only been going to the in-home daycare for five days when Ali took him on that Monday. He had his first runny nose that weekend and had woken up that morning with congestion, but he was in good spirits, so we weren’t overly worried.
“Ali messaged the daycare provider about using a Rock ‘n Play for sleeping so that Shepard could be on an incline instead of having to lie on his back. Originally, she agreed, but when Ali arrived and saw what it was, she couldn’t let him sleep in it.”
The couple found out later that the daycare provider had previously been cited by the Department of Human Services for allowing another infant to fall asleep in a swing.
She was told how dangerous it was to allow babies to sleep in that position. Still, she let Shepard sleep in his car seat.
Derek continued:
“At 12:51 p.m., the daycare provider called Ali and told her she needed to come quickly. The childcare giver reported that Shepard wasn’t breathing. She had called 911, and a police officer and EMTs had responded. Ali asked her to give the phone to an EMT, and after speaking with him she knew the situation wasn’t good. Ali called me. In the middle of teaching a class, I had to answer the phone to Ali saying I had to go, that Shepard wasn’t breathing.”
Derek continued:
“I ran to the truck and drove way too fast to the daycare provider’s home. When I arrived, they were wheeling my son out of the house on a stretcher. They were still working on him but told me that they had yet to get his heart going or him breathing on his own.
“As I rode in the van in front of the ambulance, I had to prepare myself for life without my son and the grief that would follow. When we arrived at the hospital, as they wheeled him past me into the ER, I gave him a kiss on the forehead.
“He was cold.
“As they were working on our son, the attending physician came over and told us that they would try another push of epinephrine and two more rounds of CPR, and then they would have to call it.
“Surrounded by doctors and nurses with looks of pity, and police officers, detectives, and DHS officials waiting to interview us, we had to say goodbye to our son, intubated on a stretcher.”
The childcare provider was not charged with a crime, but the family believes she is at fault.
She already knew the dangers of leaving a baby in such a position but decided to do it anyway.
Derek noted:
“DHS told her that sleeping in the car seat was a dangerous practice and would increase the chances of SIDS. She was told this just 10 days before she chose to put our child in an unbuckled car seat on the floor, swaddled, where he wiggled down until he lost his airway and suffocated to death.”
Shepard’s parents hope that their story will spread awareness of the danger of leaving a baby in a car seat or any other device that could allow them to lay in a position that could restrict the airway. They don’t want what happened to Shepard to happen to another baby.
They created a Facebook group called Shepard’s Watch to help raise awareness of safe sleeping and to support parents who have lost babies to similar accidents.
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