Deadly Day Care - Another DHS Failure
Last Update: 5/26/07
Thursday, May 17th 2007 started off as a typical-enough day for most of us. Before that fateful day was over many were left shocked, angered and fed-up with a child protection system which failed again miserably. And once again it failed with fatal results for an Oklahoma child; this lovely child, 2-year-old Joshua Minton, of Sperry, Oklahoma.
Joshua allegedly died at the hands of this woman, 42-year-old Vicki Leigh Chiles, who operated a day care center in her Tulsa, Oklahoma home and who has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Joshua Minton.
Chiles' arrest report indicates that she told police the boy would not be quiet for nap time and that she used masking tape to bind his hands and cover his mouth to keep him quiet. Chiles then left the child unattended and when she returned a few minutes later she found Joshua lying on the floor unresponsive at which point she called 911 and began CPR on the child.
As Joshua Minton lay struggling for life on the floor of Vicki Chiles day care, workers from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) arrived at her door at 2648 E. Third Street in Tulsa. The DHS workers came to Chiles' day care to either perform a surprise inspection or to shut it down. A spokesperson for DHS has indicated an emergency order to shutdown Chiles' day care had been issued on the morning of May 17 and the workers were there to carry it out. A Tulsa Police spokesman indicated the DHS workers were there to conduct a surprise inspection.
In any case, following the discovery by DHS workers of Joshua not breathing and in cardiac arrest he was rushed first to Saint John's Hospital, the closest medical facility, and then flown by helicopter to Saint Francis Hospital where he was determined to be brain dead. Joshua Minton died late on the night of May 17th.
Once again, a matter of minutes came into play in the life and death of a precious child named Joshua Minton. And once again those whose responsibility it was to protect him failed and failed miserably.
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