SIDS: Florida: Jacksonville mom charged in her baby's death after 13 hours in a room with heat at 98 degrees.

 January 13, 2011

Charlotte Chesteen is accused of neglect in her infant's death.

By Jim Schoettler

Prosecutors this week formally charged a Jacksonville mother with the neglect and death of her infant daughter left overnight in a room that broiled to 98 degrees because of a space heater.
Charlotte Renee Chesteen, 31, was initially arrested on a charge of aggravated manslaughter last month in the December 2009 death of Morgan Ashley Vandusen. The State Attorney's Office filed an additional charge of child neglect on Tuesday. Chesteen is free on $30,000 bail.
News of Morgan's death initially became public after Chesteen and Morgan's father, Quincy Vandusen, solicited donations on the website Craigs-list for her cremation. That led to a local television story about the effort, which raised about $2,000 for the parents.
An arrest report said that Chesteen found her 8½-month-old daughter dead in her crib at their Westside mobile home at 10 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2009, 13 hours after putting her to bed and last checking on her. Despite mild temperatures outside, a space heater was pointed toward Morgan and left on.
The arrest report said that police who arrived at the home found the room Morgan was in was 98 degrees. An autopsy found that Morgan died of hyperthermia and dehydration. A person suffering from hyperthermia has an elevated body temperature that can reach deadly levels if not treated quickly.
Chesteen told police her daughter was running a slight fever before being put to bed but was otherwise in good health. A doctor consulted by police said Morgan showed symptoms of being sick for at least 24 hours prior to her death and that "a reasonable parent would have sought medical attention for the victim," the arrest report said.
The report adds: "The unreasonably hot condition of the victim's room, the lack of parental supervision and lack of parental care combine to provide probable cause" for Chesteen's arrest.
Morgan's death had initially been listed as undetermined but was changed late last year to negligent homicide/manslaughter based on evidence, including the autopsy and interviews with a state child protection team.
Chesteen could not be reached to comment. A month after her daughter's death, Chesteen told the Times-Union she was traumatized by what happened and said she did nothing wrong.
"If they thought I abused my baby or hurt my baby, wouldn't I be in jail now?" Chesteen said.
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-01-13/story/jacksonville-mom-charged-her-babys-death

SIDS: North Carolina Child Protection Team

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) - New Hanover County needs some serious help when it comes to how children are cared and provided for, according to the county's Community Child Protection Team, or CCPT.

In an annual report to county commissioners, presented Monday morning, CCPT identified five major issues with child services in the county.

Major problems noted by the team include, among others, a "dramatic decrease" in the quality of mental health services for children as well as the loss of preventative services in New Hanover County when it comes to child abuse and neglect.

The Community Child Protection Team was formed because of a state law established in 1991.  The CCPT is mandated to find and address problems with child services in the county. 

The team is made up of child advocates, citizens-at-large, and representatives from agencies including the Wilmington Police Department, New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, and the Department of Social Services (DSS).  The team, however, is not a division of DSS, but a separate community entity.

Each year, CCPT submits a report to the county commissioners. This year's report will be discussed at a pre-agenda meeting Thursday afternoon and again at the regular board meeting on Monday morning, September 20.

In the report, the CCPT pointed out five problems with New Hanover County's services for children.

First, the team stated the county does not have enough local therapeutic foster homes able to meet the needs of our children.  The lack of foster homes is also evident in regard to medically fragile kids.

Second, the members of the CCPT noted a "dramatic decrease" in the quality of mental health services for children.  They indicated a steady decrease in quality since 2004 and blame, in part, constant policy changes that result in inaccessible or inadequate services for children.

Next, the team addressed funding, saying New Hanover County doesn't have enough money to assist income-eligible families that may be struggling to stay employed or trying to complete education goals.

According to the report, there were 981 families on a waiting list for assistance in New Hanover County as of August 31, 2010.

Another issue tackled by the CCPT deals with child fatalities.  The team stated that too many child deaths are classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) by a medical examiner before a thorough investigation is conducted.

The CCPT said it has continually expressed serious concerns about the way child fatalities are handled, and it will continue to push for an autopsy to be performed on every child with a questionable or undetermined death.

Finally, the team expressed that it is "tremendously concerned" with the loss of preventative services in New Hanover County when it comes to child abuse and neglect.  The CCPT cited the economic downturn and rising poverty rates as reasons to expect abuse and neglect to get worse in New Hanover County and elsewhere.

"One more burden and it becomes too much," said CCPT Chairperson, Elizabeth Mandel. "It becomes just the catalyst for them to sink. We want to be there to support them. We can't help everybody. We can't do it alone."

The team is asking for more help from the county and especially the state.

"We're asking for your clout," a team member told the commissioners, who wanted firm numbers on what kind of financial help children's programs in the county need.

The team said it will work on getting solid figures for the commissioners, but in the meantime, asked for help in lobbying state lawmakers to stop making cuts to child services and start rebuilding an ailing system.

At the end of the report, the CCPT pointed out that North Carolina ranks 37th of 50 states when it comes to child well-being, according to the new Annie E. Casey Kids Count report.  North Carolina also ranks 36th out of 50 in a measure of children living in poverty.

"That's not a number that any of us should be proud of," said Mandel.

LaVaughn Nesmith, the director of New Hanover County's Department of Social Services agreed, and emphasized that something needs to be done quickly, with both poverty and child abuse on the rise.

"The end result is death," said Nesmith. "That is not acceptable. Not in a society that we live in."

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=13166722