LAUDERDALE LAKES, FLA. (WSVN) - A family has accused a Lauderdale Lakes day care of abuse. They said their toddler was badly injured while in their care.
Two-year-old Ron Jay Smith was in a lot of pain as he was transported from Plantation Hospital to Broward Health Medical Center on March 4.
“They showed me the X-rays and his femur bone was like this [putting two fingers together], and then the X-rays showed that it broke in two, like this [separating her fingers, like a peace sign],” said Mother Nakeendra Tillman, “so if I see it like that, that means there has to be some type of blunt force that caused his leg to snap like that, for his bone to be like this now.”
Ron Jay was at his day care that Friday, First Church of the Open Bible in Lauderdale Lakes when he got hurt.
The day care did not call 911, according to Tillman. The day care had called her instead.
“She said, ‘Well, he was jumping up and down with the other kids. They were playing and then the way he fell, when he came down, he stepped on his right foot and fell over,'” said Tillman.
The preschool documented just that on an incident report, which said they had put ice on it.
Ron Jay’s grandmother, Ruby Mathews, had gone to the preschool to pick him up.
“I’m looking at his leg, and I’m asking them, ‘Why is his leg curved like that?’ He was in so much pain that he was moaning,” said Mathews.
She immediately put him in her car and rushed to Plantation Hospital.
“It’s in my head all the time, I can’t sleep because I see my grandbaby and how long he’s been crying,” said Mathews. “He’s moaning, moaning, moaning — I can’t get that moaning out of my head.”
She said Ron Jay kept on saying “hurt, hurt, hurt.”
“The doctor told me for him to have had this type of break in his bone, he would have to jump off a building,” said Tillman.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office is now involved and Child Services has also been contacted.
The day care is being investigated.
This is all while Ron Jay continues to smile, even while in pain.
“I really wanna know what happened, what happened to my child,” said Tillman.
Tillman told 7News that there are no cameras in the classroom, so the incident was never captured.
The day care spoke to 7News off camera and said the same story: that Ron Jay fell while playing, also that the family has returned their calls.
Ron Jay’s family has hired an attorney.
BSO’s Special Victims Unit is investigating.
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