When Lorenzo Miranda’s parents picked him up from Little Monkeys Preschool on November 8, 2017, everything seemed fine. While driving home, his parents, Beaudene Wi and Ricardo Miranda, reportedly noticed Lorenzo had stopped breathing and his skin had changed color. His parents rushed him to Palmerston North Hospital in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Doctors quickly tried to determine what ailed the 20-month-old child. A call to Little Monkey’s owner, Jenny Hall, revealed something heartbreaking.
Stuff reported that Wi and Miranda spoke with Hall, who allegedly told them Lorenzo “might have” fallen as his teacher looked away. Lorenzo cried but appeared OK, so the staff “thought nothing more of the incident.” A CT scan at the hospital revealed Lorenzo had a brain bleed. Despite treatment and emergency surgery, he died hours after his parents arrived at the hospital.
Stuff requested a coroner’s report that revealed Lorenzo had died from brain swelling and hemorrhage caused by a “short distance fall with head impact.” Sadly, Dr. Martin Sage, who examined Lorenzo after his death, determined the toddler might have survived if someone had reported the fall and he had received prompt medical attention.
“Had the fact of a significant fall onto his head been appreciated at the daycare center – it was apparently unobserved – and had he then been brought for medical assessment” things might have gone differently, Sage noted, adding, “there is a very significant possibility that he would have survived this injury.”
Stuff reported a WorkSafe investigation found Lorenzo was sitting at a table eating cake with other children about 2:30 p.m. He apparently left the table and a teacher found him lying on his back crying. He reportedly looked “grizzly and unwell,” but staff allegedly failed to mention anything to Lorenzo’s parents about a fall when they picked him up.
Sarah Alexander, chief adviser to the Office of Early Childhood Education, told Stuff that Lorenzo’s death was avoidable.
“In my view, there were other clear and serious failures in Lorenzo’s care before and after his accident,” Alexander said. “Lorenzo was only 20 months old and should have never been in the older children’s room without an adult constantly watching him.”
She shared her frustration with the investigation and her sadness for Lorenzo’s family. “Lorenzo died in 2017. It’s taken an extraordinarily long time for Lorenzo’s family to get answers – and still, no one has been held to account,” she said.
Lorenzo’s family keeps their baby boy alive in their hearts. Wi shared a sweet dedication to her son on social media on March 2.
“Happy 9th birthday today my precious Loz not a day goes by that my heart doesn’t cry for you xo love you always sweet boy,” she wrote on Facebook.
