Connecticut DCF Vows to Investigate After 9 Child Deaths This Year

The death of one child is one death too many, especially when it could have been prevented. 

And after the death of nine children already this year that have been placed with families involved with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, the agency is promising to investigate the issue and make improvements to guard against future fatalities, the Associated Press reports. 

The Hartford Courant reports that none of the nine children fatalities this year have been determined to have been as a result of natural causes. 

Most of the deaths have been of infants and toddlers and involved car accidents, asphyxiation, unsafe sleeping conditions, and child abuse, reports CT News Junkine, an online news source covering the State Capitol. In fact two death were at the hands of the child’s caregiver, CT News Junkie reports. 

Adore Daniels, two-months-old, suffered a head injury when her father allegedly threw her into her basinet head first, while Bradly Davis White, five-months-old, died from asphyxiation from sleeping in the same bed with his mother and brother, the Hartford Courant reports. 

However, DCF officials concede while there is an issue, they want to remind you that they serve 70,000 children annually. 

While the numbers are startling for this year, between January 2011 and February 2014, 50 children, who were placed with families involved with Connecticut DCF have died, News Junkie reports. 

DCF officials told the AP this week that it will work with child abuse experts to to improve how its investigators, hospital and doctors can see the signs early on that there are problems in the child’s home.