Colorado toddler, 2, was beaten by drunken baby-sitter: cops

A Colorado toddler is fighting for his life after he was beaten by a drunken baby-sitter his mother once considered a trusted friend.

Giovanni Reichert, 2, has had to have part of his skull removed as well as several other life-saving operations over the past few months, after his mother left him in the care of her friend McKinley Slone Hernandez, 25, on Sept. 1.

It remains unclear what happened to the young boy that fateful night, as his mother, Stephanie, said Hernandez “won’t admit to anything.”

“All she’s said is she was drinking, and he got hurt in her care,” Stephanie told KDVR.

“I make up scenarios in my head all the time for the injuries he sustained, so I wish I knew.”

She said she received a text message from Hernandez just a few hours after leaving Giovanni in her care “saying I needed to rush to St. Anthony’s Hospital because my son had gone lifeless after a bath.”

“Once I saw him and all the 50 doctors standing around him, I had to leave the room because it was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Giovanni was airlifted to the hospital and needed an emergency operation for a brain bleed — a surgery that required doctors to remove part of his skull, according to 9 News.

He was intubated and placed in an induced coma, and has had to undergo several more operations in the months since.

Hernandez regularly watched Giovanni along with others at an unlicensed child care facility at her home in Lakewood, news station KDVR reported.

Hernandez has been arrested on suspicion of child abuse – cruelty toward a child charges, and is being held on a $100,000 bond.

It is unclear if she has retained an attorney to speak on her behalf.

But Stephanie says the charges aren’t enough.

“I feel so relieved, but I also feel like she should be charged with more,” she told KDVR. 

“I feel like it’s attempted murder — she almost killed my child.”

“You never think it would happen to you, especially by someone you consider a friend,” she added.

Giovanni, who was previously described in a GoFundMe as a “happy, healthy, energetic 2-year-old,” underwent another surgery on Thursday and is continuing to suffer from fever and pain.

“We had a rough Thanksgiving this year to say the least,” Stephanie wrote on the online fundraiser Friday. 

“He’s pretty swollen and his right eye is swollen shut,” she said of her son. “He slept most of the day and I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow.”

But she said she also fears that spending months in a hospital could take a toll on his young psyche.

“He doesn’t like strangers,” she told 9 News. “Now, he doesn’t like the nurses and the doctors. He doesn’t let anybody touch him.

“We have to do everything for them in there,” she said of her and her husband, Anthony.

The community, though, has come together to support the young boy — raising more than $23,000 for his treatment.

“Giovanni, you are so resilient and so strong, keep fighting baby boy,” the online fundraiser says.

“We love you so much.”