Andrew Jesse Hunt

An autopsy on 7-month-old Andrew Jesse Hunt, of Tacoma, yesterday determined the preliminary cause of death was diminished oxygen to the brain and brain swelling, the Pierce County medical examiner's office said. Tests for diseases could take up to two weeks.

The baby died at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital Friday, the day after he was brought in by his mother, Michelle Hunt.

The boy's mother had just returned to school. Four days ago, she began taking the baby to Puffin Daycare in the home of Edith Goetz.

While he was fine for most of the day, the baby appeared to have difficulty breathing, as though he suffered from asthma, Goetz said. Hunt became concerned when she picked up her son and took him to a hospital.

TACOMA - The death of a 7-month-old Tacoma boy in a day-care center was accidental, says the Pierce County medical examiner's office.

"There's nothing to indicate the child died of shaken-baby syndrome or any type of abuse," medical investigator John DeSoto said yesterday. "We believe what happened is the child was on the couch sleeping, and he became wedged in the crease in the back of the couch."

Andrew Jesse Hunt died Friday from oxygen starvation and brain swelling as a result of breathing difficulties. Further tests are pending.

DeSoto said the day care has "a sterling reputation. It was just an unfortunate accident."

TACOMA - An 8-month-old boy who died after falling ill at a Tacoma day-care center was suffering from pneumonia, the Pierce County medical examiner says.

Andrew Jesse Hunt's death Jan. 14 was an accident, Medical Examiner Emmanuel Lacsina said Friday.

The boy already had pneumonia when his mother, Michelle Hunt, brought him to Puffin Daycare on Jan. 13. Someone at the day-care center placed the infant face down on a couch, which made it difficult for him to breath, Lacsina said.

Hunt has said she doesn't believe day-care owners did anything wrong in caring for the baby.

OLYMPIA - Clutching a framed picture of her son and fighting back tears, Michelle Hunt told legislators she found 7-month-old Jesse one day last year, his lips blue, his head covered by a blanket, face down on a couch at a state-approved day care.

Hunt wanted to tell the House Child and Family Services Committee why it should tighten up on day-care licensing.

She said her son would be alive today if a day-care license could be revoked for a series of abuse complaints, even if no complaints were proved beyond a reasonable doubt. At the very least, Hunt said, she should have been told about the complaints.

Jesse Hunt died in a hospital the day after his mother found him on the couch at Puffin Day Care in Tacoma. The official cause of death was listed as pneumonia. But a prominent child-abuse expert who examined the autopsy results suggested the death could well have been the result of Jesse being shaken.

At least seven complaints were filed against Puffin Day Care from 1991 to 1993. None was sustained. Hunt wasn't told about any of the complaints, though, when a state-subsidized nonprofit agency recommended it as a good place to leave her son.

"Shouldn't I have known about this (before enrolling Jesse)?" Hunt asked the committee.

Hunt, who vows to be a public advocate for day-care safety, has hired an attorney to consider suing the DSHS.

"My son," she said, "fell through the cracks in the system."

TACOMA - The state will pay $685,832 to settle a lawsuit that alleged it failed to investigate complaints of child abuse at a Tacoma day-care center where an 8-month-old child died.

Andrew Jesse Hunt died at the state-licensed Puffin Day Care on Jan. 14, 1994.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Andrew's estate, contended the state made no significant effort to investigate eight child-abuse complaints made to state Child Protective Services from June 1991 to November 1993.

Instead, the state continued to license the day-care center and even allowed it to expand, the plaintiffs' lawyers said.

"This was a clear case of negligence by DSHS workers responsible for licensing and investigating complaints of abuse," said Jack Connelly Jr., the lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frederick B. Hayes approved the settlement Friday.