- McKinley Hernandez is arrested for wounding two-year-old Giovanni Reichert
- The boy was put into a coma after suffering blunt force trauma to his head and body
- “She doesn’t want to admit anything,” said mother Stefanie, “she said she drank.”
A Colorado mother hopes to finally discover how her two-year-old son nearly died at the hands of a drunk, unlicensed childminder who was just arrested.
Stefanie Reichert left baby Giovanni with McKinley Slone Hernandez, 25, for an overnight stay at her Lakewood home on September 1.
Hours later, her son was fighting for his life with traumatic injuries to his head and body, and she was given chilling instructions from her friend.
“I received a text message from the suspect telling me to rush to St. Anthony’s Hospital because my son had become lifeless after a bath,” she said.
“When I saw him and all fifty doctors around him, I had to leave the room because it was the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.”
Giovanni Reichert, two, needed emergency surgery for a brain hemorrhage after an evening with unlicensed childminder McKinley Slone Hernandez, 25, in Lakewood, Colorado
Nearly three months later, mother Stefanie Reichert (left) still doesn’t know what happened to her son by childminder McKinley Hernandez (right)
Baby Giovanni for the night with a childminder that almost cost him his life
The little boy was airlifted to hospital and required emergency surgery due to a brain haemorrhage, which required the removal of part of his skull.
He was intubated and placed in an induced coma and has since required more life-saving surgeries, while his ultimate prognosis remains unclear.
“We had a rough Thanksgiving this year, to say the least!” his mother wrote on the child gofundme page.
He had another surgery on Thursday and still has fever, pain and discomfort, she explained.
“He is quite swollen and his right eye is swollen shut,” she wrote. “He slept most of the day and I hope for a better day tomorrow.”
But the distraught mother is still no closer to discovering how Giovanni was abused within an inch of his life under the care of a woman she considered a “friend.”
“She won’t admit anything,” Reichert said kdvr.com. “All she said was that she was drinking and he got hurt while tending to her.
“I’m constantly making up scenarios in my head for the injuries he sustained, so I wish I knew.”
And she fears that the months in the hospital will now take their own toll on her son. “He doesn’t like strangers,” she added.
“Now he doesn’t like the nurses and the doctors. He doesn’t let anyone touch him. We have to do everything for them in there.”
He was intubated and placed in an induced coma and has since required more life-saving surgeries, while his ultimate prognosis remains unclear.
In the gofundme, set up by a friend, Giovanna is a previously “happy, healthy, energetic two-year-old.”
“You can imagine that his parents Anthony and Stefanie are completely distraught,” he adds.
“We don’t want this sweet family to have to worry about anything other than getting their son healthy again.
“Giovanna, you are so resilient and so strong, keep fighting, little boy. We love you so much!’
But the family got some good news over Thanksgiving when a warrant was issued for Hernendez’s arrest on child molestation charges and she turned herself in to Lakewood police Thursday evening.
“I feel so relieved, but I also feel like she needs to be burdened more,” she said.
“I feel like it’s attempted murder, she almost killed my child.
“You would never think it would happen to you, especially not by someone you consider a friend.”