Serious Brain Injuries sustained at daycare, parents’ lawsuit claims.

The parents of a Birmingham boy are suing his former daycare after he was injured by a falling television.

Mark Dailey and Valerie Dailey filed a lawsuit in December after their young son, Christian, was injured at Perfect Place Christian Academy in September. The daycare, located on Oporto-Madrid Boulevard, operates as a domestic nonprofit under a company named Resurrection of Life, Inc.

According to the filing, a daycare employee left Christian and another child unattended. He was asleep on the floor when the other child tripped over a cord, knocking the television off a dresser. It fell on Christian, causing severe head trauma and other injuries.

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded to the scene, and he was rushed to Children’s of Alabama for treatment. He underwent procedures to address intracranial bleeding and a fractured skull, remained sedated for much of his three weeks at the hospital and was intubated, according to the lawsuit.

Christian was just a month shy of his 2nd birthday at the time. He is still undergoing physical therapy to restore speech, coordination and motor skills.

The family’s medical bills have been significant, from covering his initial hospital stay to his ongoing physical therapy and speech therapy.

“We really at this point don’t know where Christian is going to end up,” said David Marsh, an attorney representing the Daileys. “He has made improvements, and the family has worked very hard to support him. He’s out of the hospital and living at home. We probably will not know the full nature and extent of his head injury for several more months.”

The suit alleges negligence on behalf of two employees and claims the daycare operators did not fulfill their duties of eliminating exposed cords and adequately securing the television set. They are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

An attorney representing the daycare and its director filed a response in March, denying the majority of the allegations in the complaint. The filing argues that the daycare is not at fault and that Christian’s injuries were “solely the result of a pre-existing injury, infirmity, disease.”

“Christian was a completely healthy, active, totally normal child before [this incident],” Marsh said. “That assertion is false. There’s just no basis for that at all.”

A status conference is set this summer before a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge, and a trial date has been set in February 2017.

Hundreds of daycares throughout Alabama are not required to be licensed and inspected. Programs that are part of a church ministry are exempt under Alabama law.

The case is in the early stages, so the Daileys’ attorneys have limited information so far but it appears the daycare center was formed under that statute and was operating without liability insurance, Marsh said.

State law does require some standards for exempt centers, including background checks and fire department inspections. Alabama DHR doesn’t have any legal authority to check that exempt centers are doing what state law requires.

“We do have a concern that the religious-based statute that allows these daycares to operate is being abused,” Marsh said. “For obvious reasons that would not be a good thing, certainly not a reasonably safe situation to have for children.”

Has your child been injured due to another daycare’s negligence? Please contact the Attorneys at Chhabra & Gibbs, P.A. There is no cost to discuss your case. You can go to their website at http://cglawms.com or contact them at 601-948-8005