[UPDATED] Mum files police report against kindergarten over son’s fatal pool fall

IPOH – A woman has accused a private kindergarten here of negligence, claiming that its failure in monitoring her four-year-old son’s movements led to him falling into a swimming pool next door, which resulted in his death.

Forty-year-old D. Nilaveni, who is a trader, said the kindergarten has also yet to explain the actual reason why her son, V. Thanes Nair, was found unconscious in the adult swimming pool on April 17.

“Only when my son was at Chemor health clinic was I contacted and told that my son had fallen, but I wasn’t told that my child had actually fallen into a swimming pool,” she told the media when met today, claiming she did not know about the next door premises having a swimming pool.

Explaining what occurred on that day, which also happened to be her son’s first day attending a trial class at the kindergarten, Nilaveni said her son was then sent to Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital (HRPB), but claimed that he was already in critical condition.

Her son died at 10.30am today – six days after the incident.

“I am very disappointed because my son was not immediately sent by ambulance for treatment and the kindergarten failed to monitor and take care of my son, who was only four years old, when he was in their premises. How did my son, who was supposed to be under supervision, get to the swimming pool area?” she said.

Thanes Nair is the only child of Nilaveni and her husband V. Vijay, 43.

“I don’t want other children to suffer the same fate as my child. As such, I want the authorities to investigate what actually happened to my son on that fateful day,” she said, adding that they lodged the report a day after the incident (April 18).

A spokesman from the Ipoh district police headquarters, when contacted, confirmed receiving the report.

Meanwhile, Kinder Labz said in a statement today that the management and its staff are working closely with the authorities.

“We can confirm that Thanes was attending a trial class at our school when the tragedy took place at about 10am on the day of the incident.

“The management and staff at Kinder Labz are working closely with the authorities and have given our statements and provided all existing evidence, including CCTV (closed-circuit television) footage to (the) said authorities to facilitate investigations into the matter,” it said.

Meanwhile, Ipoh district police chief Yahaya Hassan said in a statement that the nursery’s principal had lodged a police report at Chemor police station last Tuesday.

He said that preliminary investigations found that the victim was an autistic child who was very active and liked to climb.

“According to the nursery, the victim’s mother did not submit any letter stating that the boy was autistic. However, the complainant agreed to allow the victim’s mother to place her child there on trial for two hours,” he said.

Yahaya said that, according to the complainant’s report, the victim was found in the pool after he was alleged to have disappeared and the complainant had asked the other teaching staff to help give the boy cardiopulmonary resuscitation before sending him to hospital.

“On April 18, a surgery was carried out on the victim at HRPB and he also received further treatment at the hospital. This morning, police received information regarding the boy’s death from the hospital authorities.

“The cause of death is said to be severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy secondary to drowning with multi-organ failure,” said Yahaya, who added that the case has been classified under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001. – Bernama, April 23, 2023