KANAGAWA (TR) – A boy who died in his sleep at a care facility for the disabled in Kawasaki City could have accidentally been smothered by a worker who was lying next to him to put him to bed, Nippon News Network reported on Thursday (Dec. 29).
A worker at the Kawasaki City Central Health Care Center made an emergency call at around 6 a.m. on Monday saying that the 9-year-old boy who was sleeping was not breathing, police said.
The death of the boy was confirmed after he was transported to a hospital, where an autopsy indicated a high possibility that he suffocated to death.
The worker who put the boy to sleep, aged in her 20s, told police she “was lying next to him to put him to bed. My body ended up covering him when I woke up in the morning.”
She told police that the boy was having trouble going to sleep so she was keeping him company, TV Asahi reported (Dec. 29).
Police are investigating the incident as an accidental case of suspected professional negligence resulting in death.