Rep. McLaughlin Invites Family of Calum Dudakiw-Warrick to Give Testimony in Committee

And I understand that your witness is online, and are we ready to go with that? Yes. Okay, great. Great. When you are ready to proceed, please just state your name for the record. Walters. So on April 25th, 2023, our lives took a dark turn. After our normal morning routine of breakfast, playing Bluey, brushing teeth, John Paul dropped our 23-month-old Callum off to his daycare so we could get to work, and not even an hour later, we got a call that Callum was found unresponsive with his neck lying on a toy bin. He frantically rushed to the hospital and followed him to the city where he would never wake up. We would never see our son's eyes open again, hear his laugh, or even be able to hold him without pulling on cords and wires. The love of our lives was It was taken from us in an instant. Not everyone at Callum's Daycare was CPR certified and therefore not fully equipped to take care of children. Precious time was wasted and we are fighting to make a change so no parent has to go through the heartache that we experience every day. The fact that licensed daycare centers in Illinois are not legally obligated to provide children with the best chance of survival if anything happens is beyond frustrating. Thank you, Felicia. Yeah, thank you so much, Ms. Walters. I remember you being here in committee, and we were all so, so moved by your advocacy. It's unfortunate that it comes from such a place of pain, but you honor your child by continuing to do this, and I just thank you for that.