By ONIKA JAMES Saturday, January 16 2010

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Amrit Dhanraj. ...

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IN AN incident which can only be described as tragic, three-month-old Amrit Dhanraj was found dead in a crib a few hours after his parents dropped him off at a Central Trinidad day care centre on Thursday.

An autopsy done yesterday at the mortuary of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope revealed baby Amrit died from asphyxia after choking on food he vomited while asleep.

Baby Amrit was taken to a day care centre in Edinburgh at about 8 am by his mother Yassodra Dhanraj. It was his first day at a day care centre.

Through her tears yesterday, Dhanraj said she took baby Amrit to the day care centre because it was near to where she worked and “I could have seen him during my lunch break.”

“I called in the morning and everything was all right. A few hours later, they called and said he was turning blue,” the distraught woman cried.

“My baby was healthy when I left him. Apparently they fed Amrit and I don’t know if they burped him properly. The care takers told me they tried to revive Amrit but they should have known to just call the Emergency Health Services (EHS) immediately. They are not trained professionals,” she cried.

“If they had done the right thing and called the EHS immediately for proper medical help, my child could have still been alive.” Dipchan Dhanraj, the child’s father was inconsolable. “This was my son. The only grandson in the family. I cannot understand why this happened on my son’s first day at nursery,” he cried.

The grief stricken parents said yesterday they were not sure how the police was handling the investigation into their son’s death.

When Newsday visited the day care centre yesterday, the owner refused to comment on the death.

An employee told Newsday: “she (the owner) is not feeling very well and cannot speak to reporters right now.”

Yesterday Dipchan and Yassodra Dhanraj registered their son’s death three months after they registered his birth.

“It was the hardest thing they have ever had to do,” Dhanraj said. The grieving couple have a ten-year-old daughter Amrika. Baby Amrit will be cremated tomorrow at Waterloo.