Yuseri Yusoff, father to Nour Rania Asyifaa Yuseri, holds his daughter’s body outside the forensics room of Hospital Tuanku Jaafar in Seremban, February 23, 2022. — Bernama pic
SEREMBAN, Feb 23 — A 15-month-old baby girl died after her head is believed to have got entangled in a cloth cradle at a childcare centre in Bandar Sri Sendayan here yesterday.
Seremban police chief ACP Nanda Maarof said the victim, Nour Rania Asyifaa Yuseri, was pronounced dead at the Sendayan Health Clinic by a medical officer at 4.30pm after a woman, a nanny, brought the toddler to the clinic for treatment.
He said based on initial investigations, the nanny placed the victim in the cloth cradle in a room after the baby had been fed with milk at 12.30pm. The nanny then left the room to attend to other tasks at 2pm.
“An hour later, the woman returned to the room to find the baby unconscious, with her head and neck hanging from the cloth cradle and the rest of the body in the cradle.
“The nanny immediately took the baby out of the cradle and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) but the baby was unresponsive. She then took the baby to the clinic,” Nanda said in a statement here today.
He said it was found that the single-storey terrace house was not equipped with a closed-circuit television camera and had been operating as a childcare centre since 2019.
According to him, at the time of the incident, there were 14 other children aged between six months and seven years in the centre with two babysitters, aged 37 and 29.
Meanwhile, the baby’s father, Yuseri Yusoff, 39, said it was the first time that the baby had been placed in a cradle by the nanny and even when at home, the child was never placed in a cradle.
“The nanny informed me my child was having difficulty sleeping so she put her in the cradle,” he said when met by reporters at the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital’s Forensic Department here today.
The father of three, who lost his second child in 2020 due to health complications, said he would leave the matter to the police for further action.
Nanda said the case was classified as sudden death until the autopsy results were obtained and it was investigated under Section 31 (1) (a) of the Child Act 2001. — Bernama