A family is still without answers after their little girl spent Christmas in intensive care following an unexplained incident at childcare.
Three-year-old Lexi was fine when her parents, Sarah and Matt, dropped her off at Little Amigos Childcare in Winston Hills, in Sydney’s west, on December 23 last year.
Hours later, they received a call from staff saying Lexi ‘wasn’t herself’ after she woke from a nap feeling unwell.
They went to the centre to collect a rapidly deteriorating Lexi and rushed her to hospital, where she was placed on a ventilator in intensive care.
‘She was limp and the side of her face was drooping,’ Sarah told Seven News.
‘Thirty minutes more, I may not have had a daughter.’
Her partner added: ‘What we were told on the phone, compared to what we witnessed, to what we were told at the centre and to what was told to emergency doctors, is all different events.’
Almost eight months on, they still don’t know what happened to Lexi, who has made a full recovery and now attends a different childcare.
‘Parents deserve to know where they’re sending their children,’ Sarah said.
Extensive tests in hospital were unable to determine the cause of Lexi’s symptoms.
Lexi’s parents told Seven News that the matter is being investigated by NSW Police – a claim that Little Amigos Childcare Winston Hills strenuously denied in a detailed response to Daily Mail.
The centre, which has since undergone a change in management, insists that staff notified the department about the incident and that the correct policies and procedures were followed.
The matter was investigated by the regulatory bodies, and no compliance action was issued.
‘The child was conscious and communicative, and staff did not believe an ambulance was required, given her symptoms at that time,’ the centre told Daily Mail.
‘Proper care, first aid and supervision were provided to the child. Food and drink were taken by the child.
‘The centre was under a new management and all staff involved are no longer with us. We do extensive training with staff on child safety and protection with new staff.’
The n Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority ruled in April that the centre required ‘significant improvement’ in relation to national standards.
The NSW Education Department initially cancelled the centre’s service approval licence, which was recently overturned by NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal upon appeal after the facility changed providers.
The centre has also had its assessment rating amended to ‘working to towards a national quality standard’.
‘The department initially drafted a significant improvement in rating due to concerns of the case,’ the new operator told Daily Mail.
‘This was overturned by an independent review panel that concluded no evidence to suggest any major breaches of duty of care.
‘And as the department’s own investigation did not result in any compliance action of this case, it is an unanimous decision that assessment and rating could not be downgraded to significant improvement required.’