A WOMAN has accused a private kindergarten in Ipoh of negligence, claiming that its failure in monitoring her four-year-old son’s movement led to him falling into a swimming pool next door, which resulted in his death.

Forty-year-old D. Nilaveni, who is a trader, said the kindergarten has yet to explain why her son, V. Thanes Nair, was found unconscious in the adult swimming pool on April 17.

“Only when my son was at the Chemor health clinic was I contacted and told that my son had fallen. But I wasn’t told that my child had actually fallen into a swimming pool,” she told the media today, claiming she did not know about the next door premises having a swimming pool.

Explaining what occurred on that day, which also happened to be her son’s first day attending a trial class at the kindergarten, Nilaveni said her son was then sent to the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital, but claimed that he was already in a critical condition.

Her son died at 10.30am today, six days after the incident.

“I am very disappointed because my son was not immediately sent by ambulance for treatment and the kindergarten failed to monitor and take care of my son, who was only four years old, when he was on its premises. How did my son, who was supposed to be under supervision, get to the swimming pool area?” she said.

Thanes is the only child of Nilaveni and her husband V. Vijay, 43.

“I don’t want other children to suffer the same fate as my child. Therefore, I want the authorities to investigate what actually happened to my son on that fateful day,” she said, adding that they lodged the report a day after the incident.

A spokesman for the Ipoh district police headquarters, when contacted, confirmed receiving the report.

Meanwhile, Kinder Labz said in a statement today that the management and its staff are working closely with the authorities.

“We can confirm that Thanes was attending a trial class at our school when the tragedy took place at about 10am on that day,” it said.

“The management and staff at Kinder Labz are working closely with the authorities and have given our statements and provided all evidence, including CCTV footage to the said authorities to facilitate investigations into the matter.” 

Meanwhile, Ipoh district police chief Yahaya Hassan said in a statement that the kindergarten’s principal had lodged a police report at the Chemor police station on April 18.

He said a preliminary investigation found that the victim was an autistic child who was very active and liked to climb.

“According to the kindergarten, the victim’s mother did not submit any letter stating that the boy was autistic. However, the complainant agreed to allow the victim’s mother to place her child there on trial for two hours,” he said.

Yahaya said according to the complainant’s report, the victim was found in the pool after he was alleged to have disappeared and the complainant had asked the other teaching staff to help give the boy cardiopulmonary resuscitation before sending him to the hospital.

“On April 18, a surgery was carried out on the victim at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital and he also received further treatment at the hospital. This morning, police received information regarding the boy’s death from the hospital authorities.

“The cause of death is said to be severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy secondary to drowning with multiorgan failure,” he said, adding that the case has been classified under section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001. – Bernama, April 23, 2023.