Dyana Ko and her husband Chris just experienced every parent’s worst nightmare when she left her special needs child with a nurse she hired to babysit their youngest, Landon. What should’ve been an enjoyable night of watching their son play basketball resulted in someone being taken away in handcuffs.
Dyana Ko and her husband were going to watch their oldest son’s basketball game at a nearby school. They wouldn’t be even 20 minutes away from their home.
Landon in the center along with their two other boys. Image via YouCaring.
However their youngest son, Landon, has special needs and requires attentive care all the time. Dyana decided to call up Maxim Healthcare Services, a company that provides healthcare for thousands of people across the country. Surely a nationwide company that specializes in taking care of the needy would be able to handle their child for an hour or two, with them just 20 minutes away, Dyana thought. Maxim quickly sent out a nurse who she believed would be trained to help Landon with his issues.
Landon, the Ko’s youngest son, suffers from a rare syndrome called Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome. This syndrome heavily impacts Landon’s life, requiring him to have around the clock care. This means that the Ko’s need a well trained babysitter anytime they wish to leave the house, even for a very short amount of time. Landon is non-verbal, blind in one eye and can only be fed through a feeding tube. It’s easy for any parent to understand how cautious Dyana and her husband are when it comes to the care of their son.
Like any parents of a child with Landon’s needs, they were hesitant to leave at first, but they also didn’t want to miss their son’s basketball game. They reasoned with themselves that they would be only 20 minutes away from their home and surely this woman was trained for the job. Reluctantly they left their son in the hands of the Maxim nurse professional and headed to the basketball game.
As their son was playing in his game, the parents couldn’t shake the feeling that something just didn’t feel right. That’s when Dyana decided to check an app on her phone that allowed her to watch the nanny via a camera that they had set up in their living room before they left. Upon first glance, there was a hint of something not being quite right as Landon was in the middle of the living room and crying, all alone. Of course, there could be a reasonable answer for this Dyana thought to herself and she continued to watch.
However, when the the nurse walked to up Landon, things went from bad to much worse. The nurse that Dyana and her husband had entrusted to care for her young son Landon was now repeatedly hitting him. This woman appeared to believe the best way to stop Landon from crying wouldn’t be to soothe him or give him something, but rather repeatedly hit him with her hand! Dyana couldn’t bear to watch.
I told the other moms. I said I think I see my special needs baby being abused. I think I’m going to pass out.
The abuse would only get worse when the nurse walked out of sight of the camera. When she came back however she was equipped with a rolled up magazine and a stern look on her face. She began to hit Landon with it. Dyana immediately became nauseous at the sight.
My husband was in the parking lot, moving the car at the time. I told them if I passed out look at the video because this is what I see going on.
Dyana had seen quite enough. This woman was abusing her child and clearly wasn’t equipped to care for anyone, let alone a special needs child. The Ko’s immediately called the cops as they rushed home. Thankfully, they watched as the nurse was quickly arrested by the police.
Although they had stopped the abuse, the damage had already been done to their son and the Ko family felt as though they had failed as parents. Their child has trusted them to take care of them and they had mistakenly put that trust into this nurse.
I just feel like as his parents, we failed him, because we left someone to take care of him.
Dyana’s husband, Chris, also couldn’t bear to watch the footage.
Just to see him so helpless. It was heartwrenching. We had to force ourselves to watch it live.
The nurse in question was Thelma Manalastas who was employed by Maxim Healthcare Services. However once Maxim caught wind of her actions, they immediately fired her. However for the Ko’s lawyer, Scott Dinsmore, he feels as though this simply wasn’t enough.
The worst case I’ve ever seen of somebody taking advantage — where you have a vulnerable party and a powerful party.
It turns out that this isn’t the first, and likely not the last, case where Maxim has been caught with employees who are ill-equipped to handle cases. Across several other states Maxim is involved in lawsuits over abuse. Not a good look for a company whose entire business is built on taking care of those most vulnerable.
The Ko’s are unsure how they will ever forgive themselves after foolishly trusting a stranger to watch their son.
I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself for that.
What would you do if you were the Ko family? Would you ever trust a babysitter again? How do you find good babysitters? Let us know down below!
