OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. -- Sandy Bromley, who lost her baby daughter after an unsafe sleep incident, today is working to prevent it from happening to anyone else.
One year ago, Sandy dropped off her two daughters, Haddie and Eloise, at a licensed daycare. She didn't know it at the time, but it would be the last time she would see Haddie - then 9-months-old - alive.
"Time does not heal this," Sandy told FOX 17 News. "There is no healing available for this."
Haddie was tucked in to her crib for nap time. The daycare says she got a hold of a thick comforter and got her head tangled in it. She had been wrapped up for three hours before daycare personnel noticed.
The daycare did not follow guidelines that day for safe sleep, which calls for babies to sleep away from toys and loose blankets for fear of asphyxiation.
"The hardest part for me is that her death was completely preventable," Sandy said. "Haddie should be here today."
Unfortunately, Haddie's parents aren't the only parents who've gone through this. Unsafe sleep related deaths have been on an upward trend since 2013, despite laws passed in Michigan aimed at preventing them. In 2014, Governor Snyder signed theInfant Sleep Act, a measure that requires that hospitals have materials on safe sleep. But the next year, 152 babies died in their sleep, 10 more than in 2014.
Taking it upon herself, Sandy is seeking to spare others her pain by urging other parents to take safe sleep seriously through a movement is called Haddie's Calling. It provides sleep sacks for babies to sleep in instead of blankets.
A year after Haddie's death, and the Bromleys are still hurting from their loss. They have since welcomed a new son, Fitz, but they regret that he will never get to meet Haddie.
"He looks a lot like Haddie, so it's a blessing, but also a curse at the same time," Sandy said. "Sometimes he looks so much like her that I can't even look at him."
