It's a parent's worst nightmare to drop off their child with a caregiver and pick them up severely injured.
That's what Hanford mom Christin Anderson says happened to her now 14-month-old son while at an in-home daycare.
The caregiver has since been arrested, and Anderson hopes other parents learn from what happened to her son.
Christin Anderson is a mom of three.
Her husband, Shannon Anderson, is on deployment. He's a fighter jet pilot in the Navy.
Running a business, Christin needed an extra hand taking care of Levi two days a week and, from time to time, her three-year-old and five-year-old daughters as well.
New to the area, she asked around for recommendations for childcare.
A close friend recommended Courtney Bias, who worked out of a Hanford home.
"The person who recommended her to me, I wholeheartedly trust," Christin said.
On March 21, 2023, Christin dropped off her daughters at school and took Levi to Bias' house.
A little later, she says Bias started texting her, saying Levi was inconsolable.
So Christin agreed to pick him up early, and that's when she noticed something was wrong.
"She had him on the left side of her body, and he was completely unresponsive," Christin said. "I grab my son from her, and he just - he looks gone."
Christin called 911.
An ambulance and Hanford police officers responded.
Chief Parker Sever says there was no indication of abuse initially, but after Levi was flown to Valley Children's Hospital, his injuries told a different story.
Sever says Levi had blood in the spinal column, a problem with his liver, bleeding behind both eyes and a brain bleed.
"According to the doctors that we talked to, this only could've been a result of child abuse. There is no accident that could've caused this immediate type of damage," Sever said. "It was very consistent with what people call shaken baby syndrome."
As police launched an investigation, the Anderson family stayed by Levi's side.
Shannon Anderson was given a 10-day emergency leave to come home.
Levi was in the hospital for 21 days.
He was on and off of a ventilator and had emergency surgery to remove a portion of his skull to relieve pressure on his brain.
While, miraculously, Levi's personality is still the same, he lost mobility on his left side and is still working to gain it back.
His vision has also been altered.
"We have a lot of work to do -- it's going to be a really long journey," Christin said.
Just last week, Hanford Police arrested Courtney Bias for felony child abuse with gross bodily injury.
She has since bailed out of jail.
Christin learned after the fact that Bias was not state licensed.
abc30.com
