Police launches probe into death of 7-month-old baby at daycare

The death of a 7-month-old baby at a daycare is being investigated by police, Police Commander 4 ‘C’ Khali Pareshram told Big Smith News Watch on Wednesday.

After being dropped off at her daycare in Ogle, East Coast Demerara, on Tuesday, Oriyah Gravesande died hours later.

A Wednesday morning postmortem revealed that she suffocated and haemorrhaged to death. Her parents, Shavannie Gravesande and Odysseus Clement, only had one daughter. Little Oriyah only began attending the daycare in January of this year, the parents of the grieving child revealed to Big Smith News Watch.

“She was daddy’s girl, she would cry for me when I leaving for work and when I tell she clap, she would clap,” Clement told Big Smith.

They received the heartbreaking news on Tuesday informing them that their infant daughter had stopped breathing and was being transferred to the Industrial Health Center on the East Coast.

When Clement and the mother of the child arrived at the health centre, they were informed that Oriyah needed to be taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital.

But they learned the terrible news when they got to the hospital, that their baby girl had passed away.

“She was my only daughter,” a grieving clement said. Oriyah was the couple’s only child together but they have children from previous relationships.

Oriyah had been asleep on a bed when she reportedly rolled off and was covered in a sheet, according to the parents’ account of what was relayed to them. Big Smith News Watch is aware that putting newborns in cribs is a requirement for childcare facilities.

Baby Oriyah had bruises on her face when she returned home a week earlier, but the daycare assured her mother that everything was fine.

“The mother had asked to go in and see where the baby was being kept but they said no, everything is alright,” the father told Big Smith.

The family is calling for a thorough probe to be conducted into the death of their baby girl.