The parents of a two-year-old child injured after some fragments from the ceiling fell at a Roncesvalles daycare say they are upset at the way the facility downplayed their daughter’s injuries.
David and Monika Hesch said that daycare staff called them Monday afternoon to tell them their daughter had some small scratches from the incident, but as they were on their way to the facility, they were redirected to the hospital.
"She was attached to a gurney, bloody and face swollen,” David Hesch said. “She was very, very scared, very confused, you know, a lot of dirt, dust, blood.”
A photo posted to social media shows the child has a swollen eye and small cuts across one side of her face. Her father said he believes she was napping when a portion of the ceiling fell from about 15 feet.
"It was pretty heart-wrenching to go from thinking that is was maybe a minor scrape like maybe a fall of some sort to actually needing immediate emergency assistance,” David Hesch said.
Crews were called to Ola Daycare, located on Dundas Street West near Boustead Avenue, around 1:30 p.m. that day for reports of a structural collapse.
Twenty-one children and nine staff were evacuated from the building. Toronto Fire told reporters that one child had sustained injuries and had been transported to hospital. All the other children were picked up by their parents.
Another parent told CTV News Toronto at the scene that her daughter “has a few scratches, but nothing major.”
“It could have been a lot worse,” she said.
Toronto Fire Services said that it was some plaster and tiles that fell from the ceiling. The building was deemed structurally sound by an inspector after the incident, but no details have been released regarding the cause of the partial collapse.
David Hesch said that they’ve received two emails from the daycare, but no phone calls from staff checking on their daughter.
“I think that's what really upset us the most,” he said.
CTV News Toronto made multiple attempts to contact staff at the daycare, but did not receive a response.
With files from CTV News Toronto's Janice Golding