A three-month-old baby girl, Grace Marie Yanaëlle Cadapen died at the Princess Barbie crèche on the afternoon of Monday October 2 in Stanley, Rose Hill. The child’s mother, Marie Christina Sabrina Cadapen, 39, who works as a TV agent in Quatre Bornes, explained in a statement made later that evening that her daughter was in perfect health in the morning when she dropped her off at the crèche. The autopsy performed on the infant’s body attributed her death to asphyxia due to inhalation of stomach contents.
The baby was brought to the crèche by his mother at around 10am on Monday October 2. In her statement to the Stanley police, the mother explained that she was in perfect health at the time. She pays a monthly sum of Rs 1800 for her little girl to be cared for in this crèche.
It was around 3 p.m. the same day when she received a phone call from the crèche manager. She was informed that her daughter was unresponsive, that her heart was beating very slowly and that she was going to be taken to Victoria Hospital, Candos.
Without delay, the child’s mother rushed to the hospital. Arriving in the emergency department, Christina Cadapen was devastated when a doctor told her that her daughter had died. The world fell apart for this case. She could hardly come to terms with her baby’s death. Yet in the morning, she was in perfect health.
The body was then taken to the Victoria Hospital morgue for an autopsy. The autopsy, carried out on Tuesday October 3 by Dr Sudesh Kumar Gungadin, head of the police forensic department, attributed the death to asphyxia due to inhalation of stomach contents.
The aim of the police investigation is to establish who was responsible for the death. After the baby’s death, the director of the crèche gave a statement in the presence of her lawyer. An entry for an unlicensed crèche has already been opened in the police Diary Book, for unlicensed operation of the Princess Barbie crèche against its director, Megandary Gopaul.
