A Kansas day care is under investigation after a 6-month-old boy was reportedly left with a brain bleed and a handprint-shaped mark on his head.
Sarah Braun says her son and daughter were fine and in good health when she dropped them off June 20 at the home day care in Shawnee. But the furious mom claims that wasn’t the case when she picked them up later that day.
Braun said she noticed immediately that something was wrong her with her baby boy, Glen.
“It was really hard. The kids are my whole life. My family is my whole world,” Braun told WDAF.
“The day care lady was holding Glen, and my son had puke all over himself and she said he has been throwing up,” Braun recalls. “He threw up all over his Pack ‘n Play, all over another kid.”
Braun took her son home to get cleaned up, and that’s when she and Glen’s dad, Brett Braun, noticed their son’s injuries.
“As soon as I started holding him, he vomited all over me. He had a red mark on his face,” he said.
The parents noticed that the mark on their son’s head looked like a handprint.
Braun later confronted the day care owner, who denied harming the child.
“She made excuses, saying maybe she was out of the room and another kid did this,” Braun said.
When their baby continued to throw up through the night, his worried parents took him to his pediatrician the next morning, followed by a trip to the hospital.
After examining baby Glen, doctors had some shocking news for his parents.
“The head CT showed that he had a brain bleed. From there they told us there were signs of abuse. They got the police involved and child services,” Brett Braun said.
“I was absolutely devastated. I mean he is 6 months old. I don’t know how anyone could ever hit him or do anything to him.”
Police suspect the baby was struck with hands or feet, and are investigating the case as a battery with personal weapons. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment ordered an emergency suspension for the day care.
The devastated parents are left wondering what more they could have done to ensure that their children were under proper care.
“I don't really know what to say. We did all the proper steps,” Brett Braun said. “We went on the state website. We interviewed her. We did everything we should. I don't know the right answer.”
The concerned father is on a mission to inform parents and to help prevent what happened to his son from happening to other children.
On June 24, he was spotted by KCTV outside of the home day care where he believes Glen was abused, displaying a sign with a photo of his son that read, “I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor, End child abuse.” The sign also had the number of a child abuse hotline.
“I always jokingly said I never heard him cry. Well, that changed this weekend,” he said.
He told a reporter that although they are remaining cautiously optimistic, they’re not sure of the extent of their son’s injuries.
“The next week, two weeks, month, they’re not really sure long term,” he said of the infant’s recovery time. “They’re hopeful that he won’t have any kind of deficit, but with a head injury, nobody really knows.”
The experience has left the father shaken but committed to becoming an advocate.
“You don’t know what it’s like. You don’t know the feeling that you go through,” he told KCTV. “I’m this tough guy that bawled his eyes out this weekend, and absolutely I’m going to get more involved.”
