***WARNING: This story contains graphic images which may not be suitable for all viewers. Discretion is advised***
TORONTO – An Oklahoma mom is furious after she says a daycare sent her two young boys on a day trip to an outdoor splash pad without putting on sunscreen first.
The result? Both boys suffered sun exposure so severe, they were left with 2nd and 3rd degree burns on part of their bodies.
Now the Department of Human Services is investigating the daycare in question, while the family of the two boys say they just hope the kids can put it behind them.
“I just want to see them well,” Wayne Broadway, grandfather to the two boys, told KJRH News in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “Hopefully they can go through this process and have complete healing, and the memories of this will go away as they grow older.”
According to the boys’ mother, Shaunna Oxford, the incident occurred this past Friday when she went to pick up her two boys, 7-year-old Connor and 5-year-old Trae, from the “Happiness is a Learning Centre” daycare in Vinita, Oklahoma.
She says they complained about feeling burned, and were taken to a local hospital later that weekend as their condition continued to get worse.
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Graphic images posted by Oxford to social media and shared with news agencies shows the gruesome extent of the boys’ burns, with noticeable blisters, skin lesions, and sores on their back, neck, and arms.
“Even to the point of begging me not to go back to work because they don’t want to ever go back to day care again.”
On the advice of doctors, the two boys were transferred to the burn unit at Shriners Hospital in Galveston, Texas for further treatment.
KHOU News in Houston, Texas reports that doctors at Shriners Hospital say the extent of their burns were so bad, they could have been life threatening had the boys not been transferred to their care.
The Canadian Dermatology Association recommends a sunblock with an SPF 30 or higher. It should also come with broad spectrum protection – this protects you from UVA and UVB rays.
The daycare has since voluntarily closed its doors, while the Department of Human Services say they’re investigating claims of neglect.
Meanwhile, Vinita Police say they’re launching their own investigation that may result in criminal charges.
“There is an active investigation, and we’re looking into criminal charges right now,” Bobby Floyd, Jr., the Vinita Chief of Police, told CBS News. “We’re looking at neglect and possibly child abuse.”
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Meanwhile, response to the mother’s claims has been met with support but also questions of why she allowed her children to go to daycare without applying sun block herself.
“How about next time Mom, don’t drop your kids off with no sunscreen when you know they’re going to a water park?!” reads one comment on the GoFundMe page set up to support the boys’ medical bills.
“They didn’t put no sunscreen on them and no shirt and when I asked them about it, they claimed they were out of sunscreen and that they told the kids to put on their shirts, but they didn’t want to leave them on,” Oxford told CBS News.
According to Chief Floyd, seven other kids on the field trip did not suffer extreme sun exposure, leading him to believe there was “more to the story”.
Anyone looking to make a donation to help pay the boys’ medical expenses can do so at the aforementioned GoFundMe page.
With files from Carmen Chai
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