Family frustrated, answers elusive

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This article was published 12/09/2014 (4356 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With each passing day, the family of Matias de Antonio say they’re further away from knowing why the one-month-old died and what, if any, role Child and Family Services played in his death.

The child was born Feb. 24 and died March 27, about a month after being placed in the custody of CFS.

The family, with the help of the Opposition Conservatives, has tried to get answers from child-welfare officials for almost six months about why the child was taken into CFS custody.

They say no one is stepping up to explain what happened.

“There’s so much lack of explanation,” the baby’s uncle, Carlos Burgos, said Thursday. The child’s mother, Maria Herrera, is his sister. “We have been asking and asking, and we don’t know what else to do.”

Herrera had a visit with Matias. He died after being driven to his foster home by a CFS worker. When the worker went to take Matias out of the car, he was blue.

The cause of death was undetermined.

An autopsy report said the baby had been “wrapped in several layers,” including a blanket “likely” over his face. The report added it is possible the wrapping, combined with a warm vehicle, “may have overwhelmed” the baby’s ability to regulate his body temperature, and that the placing of a blanket over the child’s head raised the question of whether suffocation potentially played a role in his death.

Tory family services critic Ian Wishart said the chief medical examiner could call an inquest into the death, but it wouldn’t examine CFS involvement.

“An inquest will not answer all the questions the family would like answered,” Wishart said. “Why was the child taken in the first place? That is not within the mandate of the chief medical examiner and the inquest. We would like to see the minister’s office offer further explanation to the family.”

The Office of the Children’s Advocate is looking into the matter. Representatives of the office, which investigates child deaths in Manitoba, have met with the family.

Wishart said the advocate’s report will not answer the family’s concerns.

“It’s a report made to the legislature, but it contains very few details because of the issue of confidentiality,” he said.

Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said she’s met the family twice and her department is conducting an internal review, which will be shared with the family when it’s finished. The family’s lawyer is also being kept informed of the review’s progress.

“The frustration of this family is understandable,” she said. “They’ve had a terrible, terrible loss.”

Irvin-Ross said she did not know when the internal review will be completed. “We’re committed that if any new information comes up we will provide it,” she said.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca