Authorities investigate child death at Albany day care facility
5-month-old dies at east Albany day care facility
By Jon Gosa
ALBANY — Authorities are investigating the death of a 5-month-old child who died Tuesday evening after being in the care of Open Hearts and Minds Learning day care facility in east Albany.
Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler confirmed the death, saying that the baby was found to be unresponsive at the 1525 E. Broad Ave. facility when the mother arrived to pick him up Tuesday afternoon.
“It happened yesterday afternoon,” Fowler said Wednesday. “Osai Kai Sanders was 5 months, 29 days old. I pronounced the boy deceased at 6:44 p.m. at the hospital. Both the mother, Darquirra Sanders, and the baby live here in town. She went to pick up her baby at the nursery, and they found the child unresponsive.”
According to Fowler, an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the child’s death.
“Right now, we don’t have a cause of death,” Fowler said. “I did not see any obvious injuries at this time. That’s why we sent the child to the GBI crime lab for an autopsy. We do not know why the baby died. He didn’t have any medical history that we know of.”
According to Fowler, both the police and a child death team were conducting interviews with day care facility employees, looking for information to help provide an explanation as to why the baby died.
“The police and the child death team are investigating and conducting interviews with employees,” Fowler said. “I do not know what the outcomes of the interviews are and, because it is still under investigation, we can’t say too much.
“There will be a full and thorough investigation, especially since the child did not have any kind of documented medical condition. But I will be going through the child’s medical records just to double-check.”
The Dougherty County District Attorney’s Office took the lead in investigating the case, and District Attorney Greg Edwards said that, so far, no foul play is suspected.
“Preliminarily, there is no indication of any foul play or anything else that presents itself as being questionable,” Edwards said. “The child was in a crib, but I cannot, at this time, give any more details. At this point, there doesn’t seem to be any other outside factors or contributors indicating anything other than a natural consequence. But what that natural consequence is will have to be determined by the pathology.”
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