REMEMBERING SUMMER

Summer Moon Hawk lived for only 24 days.

Her arrival had begun with celebration. Summer was the first baby born in Loveland in 2010, arriving on New Year’s Day at McKee Medical Center.

Her birth was significant enough to be reported by the local newspaper.

She had an older sister, Pheonyx, who was two years old when Summer was born.

At less than a month old, Summer was completely dependent on the adults around her. She could not regulate her own environment, find food, seek medical attention or tell someone when she was struggling to breathe.

She needed someone else to recognize those things for her.

During the final days of her life, Summer became increasingly ill.

She needed medical care.

She never received it.

SUMMER’S STORY

Summer was born on January 1, 2010.

Testing at birth revealed THC in her system.

Her mother, Kaylynn Marie Davis, acknowledged using marijuana during her pregnancy.

This was not the family’s first involvement with Larimer County child welfare authorities.

Concerns involving Kaylynn and her children dated back to the birth of Summer’s older sister.

After Summer was born, a caseworker visited the family's living arrangement.

Kaylynn was staying with relatives and living with her two young daughters in a converted garage.

The room was heated by a portable space heater.

A caseworker inspected the space and did not determine that the children needed to be removed.

Summer soon became sick.

According to the subsequent investigation, she experienced respiratory problems for days.

Witnesses described episodes in which the newborn struggled to breathe and sometimes appeared blue.

Her condition continued to deteriorate.

Despite those symptoms, Summer was not taken to a doctor or hospital.

Kaylynn also missed a voluntary meeting with her caseworker on January 19.

On January 25, the caseworker planned to visit the home.

Before that visit could occur, Summer died.

Emergency responders found the 24 day old infant unresponsive in the converted garage where she had been living.

Summer had been sick for approximately ten days.

An autopsy determined that she died from pneumonia.

Investigators concluded that medical treatment should have been sought for her worsening illness.

Summer was 24 days old.

SYSTEM FAILURES & WARNING SIGNS

Summer was known to the child welfare system from the beginning of her life.

In fact, concerns involving her family existed before she was born.

Larimer County caseworkers had previously received reports involving Kaylynn and Summer’s older sister.

One report alleged marijuana use around the older child and concerns about the child's care.

When Summer was born with THC in her system, Kaylynn admitted using marijuana during pregnancy.

A caseworker visited the converted garage where the family was living and determined that the arrangement was acceptable.

Services were offered.

Kaylynn agreed to drug testing, but the concerns surrounding the family did not end.

She missed a voluntary meeting with her caseworker on January 19.

By then, Summer was already within the period in which investigators later learned she had been ill.

Six days later, the caseworker planned another visit.

Summer died before it occurred.

Following Summer’s death, Larimer County Department of Human Services began an internal review of how the agency had handled her case.

Summer's death raised an unavoidable question.

How could a newborn already known to child welfare authorities, living in circumstances the agency had recently examined, become seriously ill for days without receiving medical treatment?

The child welfare system did not cause Summer’s pneumonia.

But Summer was a newborn whose family was already receiving attention because adults had concerns about the environment surrounding her.

She could not ask a caseworker for help.

She could not explain that she was having trouble breathing.

She needed the adults responsible for her care and the systems already involved in her life to recognize when she was in danger.

Summer died before anyone reached her.

JUSTICE FOR SUMMER

Kaylynn Davis was arrested after her daughter’s death.

She was initially charged with child abuse resulting in death.

Prosecutors alleged that Kaylynn failed to obtain necessary medical treatment despite Summer showing serious symptoms of illness.

The criminal case ultimately ended without a conviction for causing Summer’s death.

Kaylynn entered an Alford plea to a reduced felony charge of negligent child abuse causing serious bodily injury.

An Alford plea allowed her to maintain that she did not intentionally harm Summer while acknowledging that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction.

In January 2011, Kaylynn was sentenced to five months in a work release program and ten years of probation.

Kaylynn Marie Davis

Relationship to Summer: Mother

Conviction: Negligent child abuse causing serious bodily injury

Sentence: 5 months in a work release program and 10 years of probation

FOREVER REMEMBERED

Summer entered the world on New Year’s Day.

Her birth was announced because she had the distinction of being Loveland’s first baby of 2010.

There should have been another story about her years later.

Perhaps a first day of school.

An accomplishment.

A graduation.

Something that allowed the community that once welcomed its New Year’s baby to see who she had become.

Instead, Summer never reached February.

She never experienced spring.

She never learned to sit up or crawl.

She never spoke a word.

She never took a step.

Her older sister should have grown up with memories of Summer beside her rather than the knowledge that her baby sister died before she was old enough to make those memories together.

Twenty-four days is an extraordinarily short life.

But it was a life.

Summer Moon Hawk was here.

Her first day was January 1, 2010.

Her twenty-fourth and final day was January 25.

Between those dates was a baby girl who depended entirely upon other people to recognize her needs and protect her.

Summer deserved medical care when she became sick.

She deserved warmth, safety and attentive care.

Most of all, she deserved enough time for being the first baby born in Loveland that year to become nothing more than a sweet story her family occasionally told her.

Instead, it became one of the few pieces of Summer’s life that survived her.

Her name deserves to survive too.

Abuse Angels remembers Summer Moon Hawk.

Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.