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Child Bites, Disfigures Another At Day Care

Fall River Operators Of Archangel Home Day Care Charged

POSTED: 6:57 am EDT June 30, 2009
UPDATED: 5:31 pm EDT June 30, 2009

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Owners of a Fall River day care center were charged with child endangerment after a 17-month-old girl allegedly bit children in their care.

Shannon Furtado said that her 19-month-old son was bitten once on his head near his ear while he was at the Archangels Home Daycare. The child was treated at St. Anne's Hospital.

Furtado said that the day care operator did not tell her about the incident.

"I picked him up, I'm signing him out and I just happened to look at him, like, 'Oh my God. What is this? What happened to him?' She was like, 'Yeah, he got bit.' I was like, 'Oh, OK, so why didn't you call me?'" Furtado said.

A 2-year-old girl also at the family day care was severely hurt, bitten all over her body.

"She had a tear in her eyelid. It just looked like she was in so much pain. She had bite marks all over her arms," Furtado said.

The girl was taken by her grandmother to the hospital. In court documents, an emergency room doctor said, "She was just about covered head to toe with bite marks. The left eyelid was torn in half and was taped -- a disfiguring injury."

Another child, a 17-month-old girl, is accused in the biting. Mervat Heinen and her husband, Ashraf William, who run the day care, have moved out. They face three counts of child endangerment.

They were cited four months ago for having eight children with only one adult supervisor.

"The last day I brought him, the day he got bit, it looked like there were 10 kids there or something like that. It just seemed like every time I brought him there, there were more kids there," Furtado said.

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