The father of the toddler fighting for her life after being trapped inside a minivan for hours has shared heart-breaking details of vivacious daughter’s grave condition.
Shane Austin said his three-year-old Nevaeh has a failing kidney and needed a deep brain scan after being locked in the bus outside the Le Smileys Early Learning Centre at Gracemere, near Rockhampton.
Little Nevaeh was rushed to Rockhampton Hospital after being found unconscious and revived by paramedics just before 3pm on Wednesday.
A senior Queensland politician has vowed an inquiry into the horrific incident will be launched as questions begin to be asked about how daycare centre staff didn’t notice the girl was missing.
A toddler was revived by Queensland paramedics after being found unconscious in a minivan outside a child care centre on Wednesday afternoon (pictured, police inspect a white van outside the Le Smiley’s Early Learning Centre)
The three-year-old was found gravely ill in the van parked outside the childcare centre on Lucas Street in Gracemere, just outside Rockhampton
‘She’s the most loudest little girl they tell me… she’s the heart of the daycare,’ Mr Austin told the Courier Mail.
Mr Austin revealed Nevaeh was picked up from his Gracemere home at 9am by the childcare centre bus – nearly six hours before being found unconscious.
The toddler is understood to have been found ‘unresponsive’ in the van outside the daycare on Lucas Street in Gracemere, Central Queensland.
Paramedics, including a critical care team, were called to the centre at about 2.50pm where they treated and revived the gravely-ill girl.
Queensland Ambulance confirmed the three-year-old was ‘unconscious’ when found just before 3pm.
Police were interviewing the centre’s staff and inspecting a white minivan, especially a seat in the middle of the bus on Wednesday afternoon
‘The girl was located on a bus out the front of a school on Lucas Street [and] was transported in a critical condition to Rockhampton Hospital,’ Queensland Ambulance said on social media.
The girl was found ‘unresponsive’, the ambulance service’s Central Region operations manager Jason Thompson told media on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Thompson described the situation as ‘traumatic’ for crews who treated her and admitted he had ‘goosebumps’ talking about it.
The toddler was rushed to Rockhampton Hospital in a gravelly-ill condition and is believed to be in a critical but stable condition with her parents at her bedside
‘On the crew’s arrival Queensland Police were already on scene and escorted the crew into the childcare centre where the young child was on the floor in the admin area,’ he said.
Temperatures in Rockhampton reached a maximum of 29C on Wednesday.
The toddler is understood to be in a ‘critical but stable’ condition in Rockhampton Hospital with her parents at her bedside
The toddler is understood to be in a ‘critical but stable’ condition in hospital with her parents at her bedside.
Five police vehicles were in attendance monitoring access to and from the childcare facility.
They are understood to be interviewing the centre’s staff and inspecting a white minivan, especially a seat in the middle of the bus.
Queensland’s assistant minister for education, Brittany Lauga, said ‘this simply shouldn’t have happened’ and vowed an inquiry would follow.
‘Tonight is a little girl in Gracemere who is fighting for her life in hospital after being allegedly left on a bus at daycare,’ Ms Lauga said in a social media post.
‘Families need to have peace of mind that when they send their children off to school, kindy or day care, they will come home safe.’
The incident echoes the tragic case of Maliq Nicholas Lloyd Namok-Malamoo, known to his family as ‘Meeky’.
The Rockhampton incident echoes the tragic case of Maliq Nicholas Lloyd Namok-Malamoo (pictured) who was found dead on the Goodstart Early Learning Centre minibus in Cairns in February, 2020
Meeky’s lifeless body was found in the child care minibus (pictured), almost six hours after he was allegedly collected from his home last February
He was found dead on the Goodstart Early Learning Centre minibus in the Cairns suburb of Edmonton on February 18, 2020.
Michael Lewis was jailed for six years for manslaughter after the three-year-old boy was left on the minibus in temperatures that reportedly reached 56 degrees Celsius.
During the trial the court heard there had been confusion about the pick-up of Meeky on the morning of his death.
The court was also told that Lewis failed to take Meeky off the bus or sign him in after arriving at the centre.
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