As a parent, it’s hard to imagine a scenario more horrifying than an infant in the morgue and an apologetic doctor explaining that the medical team did everything they could. Add in a simple parental decision, likely guided by disinformation and fear, that led to this outcome, and it’s the deepest emotional terror.
It may sound extreme and over-the-top, but it’s happening to babies every year; perhaps as many as hundreds, or as few as a dozen annually (although a dozen probably doesn’t seem like a very small number to the parents of those babies). It’s not well-tracked currently, but it’s likely happening in more cases than anyone realizes, and it’s entirely preventable.
An investigation into infant autopsy reports returned tear-jerking details that no parent wants to experience.
The Latest Investigative Data
As previously reported, doctors have been sounding the alarm that the recent trend of parents refusing to allow their newborns to receive Vitamin K at birth (a standard since 1961) is risky. The numbers are hard to pin down, especially since for generations, virtually every baby has received the shot, but somewhere between 1 in 60 and 1 in 250 babies who do not receive the shot will suffer Vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB), and about half of those will have brain bleeding.
Recently, ProPublica‘s investigative journalist Duaa Eldeib filed nearly 100 public records requests to access the autopsy reports that result from those cases.
These reports contain heart-rending details, like the tiny blue blanket in which the deceased was wrapped, and descriptions of the lengths to which doctors went to try to save the little lives. One snippet describes a doctor fighting for the baby for “thirty to thirty-five minutes before rescusitative efforts were stopped at the request of the infant’s parents.”
The documents include tiny footprints, just like the ones most of us brought home alongside our babies on commemorative documents from the hospital, and records of interventions like intubation, transfusions, and IVs.
Any infant autopsy report would hurt to see. The devastation is just multiplied because these cases are so very preventable.
Why So Many Go Uncounted
We know this is happening to babies. We know it’s preventable. What we don’t know is exactly how often, because there isn’t a consistent documentation protocol.
For instance, fewer than a dozen cases per year are directly attributed to Vitamin K shot refusal on autopsies or death certificates, but hundreds of babies per year are dying due to spontaneous brain bleeds, and experts told ProPublica that some of those are likely to be due to the same cause.
In fact, at least one autopsy report shared with the public documented the cause of death as “hemorrhagic disease of newborn,” a term that predates VKDB, and is still used by some doctors. Others may list the brain bleed, but not identify it as a Vitamin K deficiency. ProPublica shared a snippet of one report that listed two items under in the section for cause of death:
1: Vitamin K deficiency bleeding
2: Postnatal vitamin K prophylaxis not received.
Now there’s a push to improve how this is reported and documented, for better clarity on the severity of the situation.
History Of The Vitamin K Shot
A really common question from people who aren’t sure some modern medical development, like vaccines and the Vitamin K shot, is really important is, “What did people do before it was available?”
Unfortunately, the answer is often that people, including babies, died a lot more frequently. In 1955, about 3 babies out of every hundred born in the United States did not survive their first year of life, according to Macrotrends. Today, it’s about 5 babies out of every thousand — and could potentially be fewer, if people weren’t overwhelmed with disinformation.
The International Childbirth Education Society identifies a few key historical moments regarding the Vitamin K shot.
It begins in 1894, when Dr. Townsend identifies 50 cases of bleeding in newborns and labels it “Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn (HDN).”
Then, in 1930, Danish biochemist Carl Peter Henrik Dam linked unexpected bleeding in newborn chicks to Vitamin K deficiency and won a Nobel prize.
In 1944, a Swedish researcher found in a study of 13,000 infants that those given a dose of Vitamin K at birth are 5 times less likely to die of a brain bleed.
In 1961, the American Academy of Pediatrics began recommending the Vitamin K shot for every newborn.
Unfortunately, some research in the 1990s misled some parents to believe there was an association with childhood cancers, and other fears have increased since, some associated with the antivax movement (although the Vitamin K shot is not a vaccine).
What Makes People Reject Lifesaving Preventive Care?
This appears to be largely due to disinformation that spreads online.
Parents are naturally protective of their kids, and it’s easy to let that translate into a fear of medical care and intervention rather than understanding the benefits.
This is amplified in antivax and conspiracy theory groups online, where debunked and disproven claims continue to proliferate. Parents are encouraged to believe that distrusting mainstream medical advice puts them ahead of the curve and above the ‘norm.’
Questioning isn’t a terrible thing. The problem comes when that questioning results in outright rejection of medical protocols, with no desire for a better understanding.
Parents, please speak to your doctor if you have concerns or fears about Vitamin K, newborn eye drops, vaccinations, or any other standardized treatment. If someone gives you information that conflicts with medical professionals’ advice, check it with an expert you trust, not a stranger on an internet forum.
