Teresa Biswanath (Washington County District Attorney’s Office).
In Oregon, a day care provider who did not have a license is going to jail for the tragic death of an 11-month-old infant under her care. Prosecutors revealed that she wrapped the baby too tightly in a swaddle unsuitable for his size and left him face down on a bed with a pacifier, ultimately causing his death.
Following the incident, Teresa Biswanath from Washington County received a two-year prison sentence and three years of post-release supervision for being criminally negligent in the child’s death, as confirmed by the Washington County District Attorney’s Office. She is now permanently banned from operating any licensed child care facility and is also required to stay away from the victim’s family.
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Biswanath was convicted by the jury in April for the child’s demise in 2022. She was overseeing an unlicensed day care at the time of the tragic incident and indicated to the authorities that she had adopted similar procedures to those practiced at her previous workplace, a reputable child care center in the area that had prohibited the swaddling of infants, as reported by the DA’s office.
“On the day of the child’s death, the defendant was caring for five children, including the victim,” the office says in its release. “During nap time, the defendant squeezed the victim into a swaddle much too small for his size, one designed for newborns less than three months old who could not roll over or crawl as he could. She used straps to bind the child’s arms and put a pacifier with a 6-inch stuffed animal attached into his mouth.”
Prosecutors say Biswanath initially tried to get the child to fall asleep in the room where the other children were. She then took him to a bedroom on the second floor of the home and placed him “facedown on the bed with his arms constrained by the swaddle,” according to the DA’s office.
“The victim was upstairs for at least one hour as the defendant was in and out of the bedroom,” the office says. “The defendant left to check on the other children and when she returned to the upstairs room, she found the victim blue and unresponsive. She attempted to perform CPR while her husband called an ambulance. First responders were unable to revive the child.”
