The parents of one of the two children who attended the same Miami day care and who died a week apart are demanding answers in the death of their young boy.
Connor Mincey died last earlier this month at just 22 months old, within days of the death of a second child who also attended the YWCA Carol Glassman Donaldson Child Care Center.
"Connor was my best friend. He’s my little teddy bear," mother Doreen Mincey said at a news conference Thursday. "At night we sing, we said our ABCs, we prayed, we read together. And when he finish he said 'mommy, good night, I love you.'"
Connor was preliminarily diagnosed with meningitis, according to the parents and their attorney, Judd Rosen. The other boy who also attended the YWCA before he died had been diagnosed with meningitis.
Investigators said they don't know if the deaths are connected or are connected with the day care. Connor's parents said it was at the day care where he would always get sick.
"I trusted them. I’m gonna get justice for Connor," father Donald Mincey said.
Donald and Doreen Mincey said they went from doctor to doctor for four days before Connor was put on life support and later died.
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"This is a condition where he was not properly diagnosed and not properly treated and the parents were pleading to get the right treatment, doing everything they could do and no antibiotics were given," Rosen said.
"The instructions we were given, to keep giving this child Tylenol, keep giving him Motrin and every three hours to mix it up, they give us instructions and he’s not improving so we knew something wasn’t right," Donald Mincey said.
One of the hospitals Connor was taken to was Nicklaus Children's, which released a brief statement Thursday.
"Nicklaus Children's expresses heartfelt condolences to the family. We are not able to comment on specifics related to this case in accordance with privacy laws," the statement read.
The daycare center remains closed as the State Department of Health, DCF, and the YWCA investigates. YWCA officials said all of the facility's children have received medical checkups and were found to be okay, and that the building had been sanitized twice.
"He was a wonderful baby, a happy child. And to see that taken away from me, it's heartbreaking," Doreen Mincey said.
