‘My daughter’s life is in a box’: Parents seek answers after 3-month-old dies at day care

RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WLBT/Gray News) - One Rankin County family is seeking answers after they say their infant died at a Brandon day care.

The family said their 3-month-old daughter Mazeigh Grace died while at the Children’s Center at First Baptist Church in Brandon.

“My daughter’s life is in a box,” said Carson Shows, Mazeigh Grace’s father. “Having something that precious taken away from you is awful. No parent should ever feel that; nobody should ever have to go through this, ever.”

Shows said it all dates back to March 31 when his daughter was at the day care. He said she was diagnosed with torticollis. It’s a condition where a child’s neck muscles cause their head to tilt to one side.

The Brandon man said the day care knew about this condition and knew not to place Mazeigh Grace down on her right side. According to Shows, a police report, detective and medical staff detailed what the day care worker did that day.

“She put her in her crib on her right side against the back of the crib with a bib and pacifier in her mouth, and she flipped face-first for 68 minutes,” said Shows.

Once the worker finally saw what was happening, she called for help, and CPR was administered.

“She had an aneurysm, and then they rushed her to the hospital, and we were told that basically there was nothing that we could really do,” the father recalled.

When it comes to the worker who was in the room, Shows said this. “She admitted fault, 100 percent,” he said. “She admitted to everything.”

Shows said that’s according to the police. Afterward, he alleges the day care tried to help the family with medical expenses.

“The day care is calling me and my wife, saying that they got ten grand to put up for hospital charges,” said Shows. “Then they acted like they wanted us to settle for $10,000 and just let it go, so we said no to every bit of it.”

The Mississippi Department of Health said it’s aware of the incident, and an investigation is underway. In a statement, the health department said the day care called and reported the incident as required.

“Infant care was suspended, pending our investigation,” the statement reads. “The facility subsequently entered into a consent agreement voluntarily surrendering infant care of the program until further notice.”

Shows said the workers who were involved in this incident are still at the day care. He’s calling for them to be removed.

“The workers there need their license pulled for sure, and the lady that was running it at the time should not ever be running a day care again,” the Brandon man expressed.

Police are investigating this death, and this time an arrest has not been made. The department said it’s waiting for the autopsy report to come back from the crime lab, which will give the exact cause of the baby’s death.

Shows said he’s being told it could be eight months to a year before the report comes in from the crime lab. We reached out to the daycare about this incident. The day care administrator said she could not comment at this time.

The family said they are planning to take legal action against the day care.

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