Wednesday

in the news
Sitter Dies and Lands on Long Island Infant - New York
A morbidly obese Long Island baby sitter accidentally smothered to death a month-old infant when she collapsed and died on the couch where the child was lying, authorities said yesterday.

Teresa Coffey, who was 5-foot-6 and over 200 pounds, was found on top of little Michael Baldwin III on Thursday at around 9:30 p.m. by the boy's horrified father, and both were pronounced dead at a hospital near the Greenlawn home.

"I searched every room," Baldwin tearfully recounted yesterday. "I was saying his name, 'Michael! Michael!' " When his search failed, Baldwin said he returned to the living room, where Coffey, 39, was "slumped on the couch, face down, her knees on the floor . . . I just had this funny feeling she was on top of him. (Please click link to continue reading)

Live-In Baby-Sitter Arrested for Alleged Child Abuse - California
"I just wanted to strangle the guy, and he walked around you know. He was so calm."

Raw reaction from neighbor Tina Marshall, after she saw stunning injuries to a 3-year-old boy, who police say, was in the care of his 23-year-old babysitter, Samuel Charles Flores.

"His eyes were open. They were glazed over. He was foaming at the mouth," Marshall said.

Police say Flores was drunk when he poured scalding water on the boy to discipline the toddler. "He was burnt from the top of his neck all the way down to his butt. The burns were so severe that the skin was pulled away from his back," Marshall said. (Please click link to continue reading)

8 comments:

Just My Two Cents Just Now said...

These stories break my heart. ♥

What these poor children endure is something so terrible I cannot even imagine.

Bless their innocent souls. ♥

Tales from the (Nanny)Hood said...

It's tragic that the infant's family had NO ONE to help them but a relative stranger who they met in the hospital when their son was born.

It's ridiculous to me that the babysitter's weight is even at issue here, since even the most skeletal NYC mom would smother an infant if she collapsed on top of it. Discuss the sitter's health issues (if there were any), but calling her "morbidly obese" at what was likely a size 18 is stupid.

Ms. Dr. Juris said...

I think it's sadder that he saw the lady collapsed and didn't even move her to check and see if she were still alive or not. I know he was concerned about his infant, but that would have been the first thing I did.

ATL Nanny said...

I agree -- the first story is tragic, but the coverage is ridiculous. The babysitter's weight is not the issue here. At 5'6" and "over 200lbs" she is very likely NOT morbidly obese (defined as 100lbs overweight or BMI of over 40). And it was not her weight that caused the baby's death. Any adult -- no matter how thin -- who collapsed on top of a month-old infant laying on a sofa would likely smother the poor baby. And I too am horrified that the father walked in, saw the woman collapsed on the floor/sofa, likely dead or dying, and walked right past her. I understand his concern for the child, but would he not assume the baby is safely in his crib and first attend to the dead/dying woman in his living room?

another nanny said...

Funny, I didn't think about the "morbidly obese" part in relation to smothering, but more so that it may have contributed to whatever health condition led her to randomly collapse while going about her daily routine.
Weight itself itself is not an issue (since people can be "overweight" but still healthy), but I would definitely want a healthy childcare provider

GoldenStateNanny said...

While I agree that both of these stories are tragic, I find the second story hurts a bit more. That a caregiver would be irresponsible enough to get drunk while on the job, and then proceed to use a sadistic method of punishment! Intentionally scalding the child! This turns stomach...

Sadden said...

That second story reminds me of the adoptive mom in Alaska that disciplined her child by forcing him to drink a bottle of Tobasco sauce.

Fraggle said...

Also, I'd like to point out that 5'6" and 200 lbs is about a hundred pounds off from being "morbidly obese." Whoever used the term morbidly obese was a moron and lost total credibility.