San Bernardino couple sues nurse, health care agency for burning son
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- A San Bernardino couple is suing a nurse and the health care agency she worked for, after their young son was severely burned and had to be hospitalized.
"He was really bad when I first saw him. He was blistered," mother Abigail Michel said.
Michel recalls the night her 4-year-old son Adam was severely burned. She and the child's father had just returned home from a family gathering in March when they got the call.
"She told us she showered him with hot water and this is how he got burned," Adam's father Chris Bautista said.
The couple says they left their disabled son in the care of his nurse Debra Hunniford, a licensed vocational nurse with NU-Era Home Health Agency, at her home in Yuciapa.
At the hospital, Chris Bautista says something didn't add up.
"Initially, going into the emergency room, people were giving us dirty looks, wondering what happened. We didn't even have answers for those questions," he said.
They are now suing Hunniford and the health care agency. A forensic test of their son's clothing determined he was burned, but not by water.
"There are three things they found: vomit, skin on the shirt on the inside of the shirt and they also found evidence of sodium hydroxide. A lot of evidence of sodium hydroxide," substance attorney Mark Peacock said.
Peacock added that sodium hydroxide is used in the making of methamphetamine. He says 20 years ago, Hunniford was arrested on charges related to the manufacturing of the drug. Those charges and others were later dismissed.
Eyewitness News tried to contact Hunniford at her home, but was told she wasn't home.
"Adam Bautista was in the care and custody of Debra Hunniford, who was providing off-duty babysitting services in her own home. Ms. Hunniford was not working for Nu-Era the evening the incident occurred," said Rima Badawiya, an attorney for NU-Era.
The couple insists she was on the clock that night.
Adam is now home after spending a week in the hospital.
"That's what kills me even more is we still don't know what happened," Bautista said.
