Day care sued over 6-month-old’s death

The parents of a 6-month-old girl who died after she was left zipped up in a full-length jumpsuit and sitting in an insulated car seat in a hot room in the middle of summer are suing the operators of an Ewa Beach day care center for negligence.

Zoe Wurtz died July 21, 2015, just hours after her father had dropped her off at Aloha Made Child Care.

The Honolulu medical examiner said Zoe died accidentally from complications of hyperthermia.

Zoe’s parents, Troy Wurtz and Wendy Umipeg-Wurtz, filed a lawsuit in state court Tuesday against Ronessa and Zachary Campogan, who the Wurtzes say owned and operated Aloha Made Child Care at the Campogans’ Halemano Street residence.

The Wurtzes say they both had full-time jobs and had been taking Zoe to Aloha Made since before their daughter was 2 months old.

According to the lawsuit, Troy dropped off Zoe at 7 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. Ronessa Campogan, the only adult present who was licensed to care for children, fed the baby and placed her in the insulated car seat. Campogan also zipped up Zoe’s jumpsuit and put an adult-sized pillow on top of the infant; the pillow was used to prop up a bottle from which the infant could feed, the lawsuit says.

At about 10:20 a.m. the Wurtzes claim Campogan placed Zoe in a room that had only one window, but left the door ajar while she cooked for the other children in her care. When Campogan went to check on Zoe at 11 a.m., the baby was unresponsive.

The lawsuit says Campogan took Zoe out of the car seat, administered CPR and called 911. Campogan’s son also called Zoe’s father and told him that Zoe had stopped breathing.

An ambulance took Zoe to Queen’s Medical Center- West Oahu, where doctors recorded her temperature at 103.6 degrees. They pronounced her dead at 11:54 a.m.

The following day the state Department of Human Services suspended Aloha Made’s family child care home license and initiated an investigation into Zoe’s death.

According to the lawsuit, DHS determined that Campogan violated state rules for family child care homes and did not follow safe practices when she put Zoe to sleep in an insulated car seat instead of in a crib or on a mat on the floor. The DHS also found Campogan violated state rules when she put a bottle in the insulated car seat to feed the child.

Campogan relinquished her family child care license last October, the lawsuit says.

The Campogans could not be reached for comment.