Pennsylvania Baby Dies on First Day of Daycare, Investigation Underway
A police investigation is underway in Lehigh Township, Pennsylvania, to determine what caused the death of a three-month-old girl who stopped breathing during her first day in daycare, PEOPLE confirms.
Authorities have closed Sharon's Day Care in Treichlers, citing the center for "gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct," records show.
In a post to a GoFundMe page launched for the child's parents, McKenna Felmly's father claims his baby daughter seemed healthy and happy the morning she was dropped off at the center.
Bryan Felmly wrote that McKenna's mother, Adrienne Kromer, brought their infant daughter to the center so she could return to work after three-plus months of maternity leave.
The worried mother called the daycare center three times during the day. After hearing McKenna wouldn't eat and had fallen fast asleep, Kromer started driving to Sharon's to pick the baby up, Felmly wrote.
But before she arrived, McKenna had stopped breathing and was already in an ambulance heading for the hospital, Felmly wrote.
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McKenna was pronounced dead soon after arriving at the emergency room.
A police spokesman tells PEOPLE McKenna's death is not being handled as suspicious yet, as an autopsy failed to show any signs of trauma to the child's body.
Blood work is still being performed, the police spokesman says, and detectives have been interviewing McKenna's relatives, family friends and the center's staff.
"We have no words, no answers, no nothing," Felmly wrote. "Our family is now broken. I'm not sure how we are supposed to go on. There's no reason why a 3.5 month old healthy baby girl should have lost her life."
It could be several weeks before testing reveals McKenna's exact cause of death.
The daycare's proprietors could not be reached for comment.
