In August 2023, a 9-month-old boy had his first day at a daycare center in Santa Fe, Texas. Sadly, the day did not turn out as his family had anticipated. At 2:30 p.m., the boy’s mother received a phone call informing her that her son was projectile vomiting. She immediately rushed to the church daycare center. When she arrived, she was told her infant son had sustained a head injury at the center earlier that morning.
She immediately rushed her son to a local emergency room where radiologists diagnosed the boy with a brain injury, including a fracture to the right side of his skull and a leftward midline shift of his brain. The boy was then transported by air to a larger children’s hospital with more resources in nearby Houston.
Brain injuries, especially with infants, can have lasting impacts on a child’s health and quality of life. Once our Texas daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm got involved, we fought to get justice for this Santa Fe family. Our legal team secured a settlement that held the Baptist daycare center accountable for its negligence and numerous violations of state childcare laws that seriously injured the infant boy and put other children at risk.
How the Church Daycare Center in Santa Fe, Texas, Failed This Family
In Texas, daycare centers must follow a strict set of laws, known as the minimum standards, that govern all aspects of childcare to keep children safe. The daycare center in Santa Fe, Texas, failed to follow several key regulations that could have prevented the infant boy’s brain injury.
The Santa Fe daycare center was required to:
- Provide the level of supervision necessary to ensure each child’s safety and well-being, including physical proximity and auditory visual awareness of each child’s ongoing activity,
- Immediately notify parents of injuries that require medical treatment or hospitalization,
- Immediately notify parents of situations that may have placed a child at risk for injury and/or harm,
- Immediately contact emergency medical services for injuries that require immediate treatment by a healthcare professional and
- Provide the level of supervision necessary for a child’s safety and well-being.
However, the Santa Fe daycare center provided different accounts of the incident to both the hospital workers and the boy’s parents—the details of how the infant sustained his brain injury at the center remain unclear. Medical providers even weighed in, stating the story from the Santa Fe daycare center did not add up with the boy’s brain injury. This indicates that the caregivers were negligent in caring for the child at the time of the injury.
The Santa Fe daycare center also placed the infant boy’s life at risk by failing to act quickly when reporting the injury to the parents and by choosing not to contact emergency medical services despite obvious swelling to the right side of the boy’s head and the boy becoming lethargic—both common symptoms of a brain injury.
How The Button Law Firm Got Justice for This Infant and His Family in Santa Fe, Texas
On his first day at the Santa Fe daycare center, the infant boy sustained a brain injury. Four hours after he was hurt, the daycare center told his mom he hurt his head. She rushed him to the emergency room, where a CT scan revealed the extent of his brain injury and the urgent need to get him to a children’s hospital in Houston so he could undergo an emergency craniotomy procedure.
During the surgical procedure, doctors removed a large piece of the baby boy’s cranium, which revealed a large subgalea hematoma and a large linear skull fracture. The size and nature of the surgery resulted in a permanent scar that will prevent hair from growing back. The infant was then placed in the pediatric intensive care unit to monitor his recovery and any signs of deterioration of his organ systems.
As you can imagine, the infant required multiple follow-up appointments with his neurologist and his occupational and physical therapists so he could receive ophthalmology treatments.
In addition to the costly medical treatments, the young boy was in a great deal of pain from his daycare injury and subsequent treatments. He was unable to sleep through the night and had to be held by his parents in a way that took the pressure off of the incisions in his head.
His parents are understandably worried about their son reinjuring himself and his future. From the brain injury sustained at the Santa Fe daycare center, the infant developed exophoria, a condition where the eye drifts outward. The condition causes headaches, double vision, and poor hand-eye coordination.
Thanks to our daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm, the Santa Fe daycare center was held accountable for all its wrongdoings that caused the boy’s brain injury. The young boy and his family were awarded a settlement that compensated the family for all the damages they experienced, including current and future medical expenses and their pain and suffering.
The Button Law Firm Can Help Your Family After a Brain Injury Sustained at a Daycare Center
If your child sustained a brain injury because caregivers neglected to follow Texas daycare safety laws, contact our experienced daycare injury attorneys at The Button Law Firm. With attorneys in Dallas, Houston, and Midland, we are ready to listen, fight for your family, and help your family move forward. Our attorneys at The Button Law Firm are recognized on the prestigious Texas Super Lawyers list, and we can help guide you after a traumatizing incident involving your child. We work on contingency, meaning we don’t charge you or collect any upfront fees to get started on your case. Call us at 214-699-4409, email us at [email protected], or fill out a contact form for a free case evaluation.
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