* The matter stated below has been withdrawn due to lack of evidence.
A Boksburg mother has opened a case of assault against a creche for administering medication to her child without the parents’ consent as a means of disciplining her.
Siobhan Beuschel blames the Mickey Mouse Nursery and Pre-Primary School in Atlasville, Boksburg, for 14-month-old Tylor’s week-long hospital stay in March.
Tylor was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a condition that is usually triggered by toxic poisoning often found in medication.
Beuschel believes it was the clove oil that staff at the creche gave Tylor that led to her falling ill.
Beuschel said she was first told about the clove oil after Tylor bit another baby in her class. To punish her, the teacher dipped an earbud in clove oil and made Tylor suckle on it.
“I fought with them and told them that they are not allowed to give clove oil to my daughter at all,” said Beuschel.
But on March 8 she was told that Tylor had been given clove oil because she bit her peer again.
“When I fetched her from school at around 4pm, I could smell it on her breath… She also had red spots on her arm. When I asked the teacher about it, she said it was probably mosquito bites.
“When I got home and was getting her ready for her bath, I realised the spots were all over her body,” said Beuschel.
She said that by the following morning the spots were worse and had turned into what looked like welts.
“I took her to the paediatrician and was told it was an allergic reaction to the clove oil,” she said.
Tylor’s condition continued to deteriorate. She developed a skin rash, became nauseous and had diarrhoea.
“Because she was also teething at the time, we thought these symptoms were a result of that,” said Beuschel.
It was when Tylor’s body started swelling and she had trouble breathing that Beuschel said she realised it wasn’t just teething problems, and she rushed her daughter to hospital.
“That morning when my baby woke up she was as swollen as the Oros man… She couldn’t walk, stand or do anything. I couldn’t touch her because she was sore all over… I couldn’t comfort her when she cried,” Beuschel said.
At the hospital, Tylor was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
“They told me there’s a 10 percent survival rate among babies with this syndrome. I was devastated when I heard that I might lose my daughter,” said Beuschel.
After a week of hospitalisation and treatment, with medical costs mounting to more than R37 000, Beuschel didn’t return Tylor to the creche.
Instead, she opened a case of assault at the Boksburg North police station against the creche, accusing it of causing her daughter’s illness.
The station’s spokeswoman, Lieutenant Juanita Coetzer, confirmed a case had been opened and that the docket was before the court pending the State’s decision on whether to prosecute.
Robin Twaddle, legal representative of the creche’s management, said the creche had stopped using clove oil to discipline the children since the incident. He said the method had been used by the creche since its establishment in 1974, and problems had never arisen before.
He said the creche had requested Beuschel to provide medical proof that it was the clove oil that had led to Tylor’s illness, but had not received anything.
The spokesman for the Gauteng Department of Social Development, Dr Sello Mokoena, said the department would be investigating the allegations against the creche.
Responding to The Star’s queries on whether or not the creche was registered as an early childhood development centre as it should be, Mokoena said it was registered only as a non-profit organisation for fundraising purposes.
“An investigation is under way and the department will reveal the outcomes… as soon possible, and act in the best interest of the children,” he said.
Cape Argus