Foster Child Death Update -
http://www.kztv10.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=9456
Action Ten News has received new information about the Alice foster family who had a two-year-old girl die under their watch Monday.
Child Protective Services told Action 10 News on Thursday that the foster parents are licensed to care for children with medical needs. Two-year-old Jenesis Gomez suffered from treacher colis syndrome, only allowing her to eat and breathe through a tube.
The foster family is also licensed to care for up to six children. They currently have two children.
In 2008, the family was cited for leaving their children in the care of nurses and home health care providers.
Jenesis was only in the foster family’s care for four days before she died.
The foster family received Jenesis from a hospital where she was being treated for an infection in the tube that allowed her to eat and breathe. While at the hospital, she tested positive for cocaine.
Before being taken to the hospital, Jenesis was in the care of a biological aunt who had been recently arrested for possession of a controlled substance, according to the Child Protective Service’s removal affidavit.
Jenesis’s biological mother, Ashley Silva, told Action Ten News Wednesday that she believes her daughter’s death is the foster family’s fault. She said she was told that Jenesis had pulled out her own trache tube. Silva said she refuses to believe that.
“She did not do that,” Silva said. “She knows to protect herself. She knows that’s her airways.”
Residential Child Care Licensing, a division under the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, is investigating the foster family. Child Protective Services is also under the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Two-Year-Old Dies Under Foster Care -
Child Protective Services is investigating a family whose foster child died Monday.
http://www.kztv10.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=9453
The biological mother blames CPS for putting her two-year-old little girl into the wrong hands, but why the child was placed in CPS in the first place may offer another point of view.
Two-year-old Jenesis Gomez was born with treacher collins syndrome, a disease characterized by facial deformities. Before she died Monday, she depended on a tube to eat and breathe.
Jenesis’s mother, Ashley Silva, said she was told that the toddler removed her own tube on Monday. Silva said she refuses to believe this.
“She did not do that,” Silva said. “She knows to protect herself. She knows that’s her airways.”
Silva said she believes it is the foster family’s fault because she thinks they did not help Jenesis get her tube back in.
“If they were there to assist her, she would have been alive,” Silva said. “I know it. I’m telling you.”
Even if Jenesis was still alive, though, it’s likely she would be with a foster family. During Jenesis’s short life, she has lived with various family members, many of whom have been arrested for drugs.
In fact, the toddler herself tested positive for cocaine less than two weeks ago. Doctors discovered this when she was at Driscoll Children’s Hospital for an infection to her trach tube. Jenesis was then placed with a foster family upon being released from the hospital.
She was only with the family for four days before she died.
Action Ten News asked CPS how the baby could have died under state care. John Lennan, a public information officer for Child Protective Services, replied that the child was medically fragile.
CPS will continue to investigate the foster family to find out what happened.
