OLATHE, Kan. — A baby boy is recovering after suffering a brain injury at an unlicensed daycare in Olathe. The infant’s 25-year-old babysitter, Paige Hatfield, is charged with aggravated battery and running an illegal daycare.
Hatfield was arrested on Wednesday, posted bond and was released from jail the same night. FOX 4’s Shannon O’Brien went to Hatfield’s house on Thursday to give her the opportunity to tell us her side of the story.
“We are not talking to anybody right now, if you guys could please leave that would be great,” her husband said.
“You don’t want to tell your side of the story?” O’Brien asked.
“Appreciate it, thanks guys,” her husband replied.
While Hatfield’s husband did not want to talk about what is alleged to have happened at their home January 30, a neighbor who witnessed the chaos did.
“The two cops, three white (Johnson County) Med-Act trucks, three red Med-Act trucks, an ambulance and a fire truck,” Austin Schwegman recalled spotting that day.
Schwegman said it was clear that one of the children at Hatfield’s in-home daycare was in trouble.
“One lady that was carrying it, all you see is she is holding the baby like you should, and then the arm dropped down, not moving at all,” he described.
Sources say the boy’s parents got a call from Hatfield that the 4-and-a-half-month-old was unresponsive. Shortly after EMS arrived, so did the baby’s mother.
“She was in there for about five seconds total and then was pulled out by two Med-Act people, crying. She was crying constantly, just kept putting her hands over her eyes, wanted to go inside but wasn’t allowed,” Schwegman said.
Schwegman says eventually, he saw Hatfield come out of her house and talk to the baby’s mother, telling her what happened to her child.
“The baby’s eyes rolled back into its head and it started swallowing constantly,” he said.
Sources say it is a miracle that the infant survived, doctors at Children’s Mercy Hospital telling the baby’s family it is one of the worst cases of shaken baby syndrome they have seen.
Watching the tragedy unfold brought back Schwegman’s own childhood memories, when he says a babysitter killed his 1-year-old brother.
“He choked and shook my brother… It has been 21 years now,” he said.
The baby boy Hatfield is charged with abusing was just recently released from the hospital. Sources say the part of his brain that was injured controls hearing and eyesight. It is too early to tell about those long-term effects, but the baby does now have some developmental issues on the left side of his body.
