When Baby Gwen was born, her parents decided not to have her receive a vitamin K injection, though it’s been standard practice for decades, and gave her drops instead.
asserted
it → bear → drops
The emergency room doctor who first treated Gwen tried seven methods to stop the bleeding from her belly button before the baby was transferred to a hospital.
asserted
baby → treat → hospital
The family filed a complaint against the ER doctor with the Texas Medical Board, which alleged she didn’t recognize that Gwen had vitamin K deficiency bleeding.
asserted
deficiency → file → bleeding
Stephanie and Eric Biesenbach took comfort in that when their newborn daughter, Gwen, wouldn’t stop bleeding from her belly button.
asserted
daughter → take → button
They buckled Gwen into her car seat and made the drive over.
asserted
They → buckle → drive
Medical records from that warm August evening in 2023 described her condition as a “generic problem” of a bleeding umbilical cord stump.
asserted
records → describe → stump
The doctor on duty, Nicole Malouf, had treated plenty of those as an emergency room specialist.
asserted
doctor → treat → specialist
She covered Gwen’s oozing belly button with a special gauze to stanch the flow, and when it appeared to stop, she sent Stephanie, Eric and Gwen on their way.
asserted
she → cover → way
They made it as far as the parking lot before they noticed Gwen had bled through her footed pajamas.
asserted
Gwen → make → pajamas
Eric slid his arm under the car seat handle and lifted his 11-day-old daughter out of the car.
asserted
Eric → slide → car
They walked back toward the glaring lights of the Lonestar 24HR ER, a freestanding emergency department in New Braunfels next to a car wash, a McDonald’s and a deli.
asserted
They → walk → wash
Stephanie told Malouf that Gwen had been bleeding a bit after the scab that replaced her umbilical cord stump fell off.
asserted
that → tell → stump
The amount of blood they saw that night worried them.
asserted
they → see → them
She ticked through Gwen’s history.
asserted
She → tick → history
She mentioned that she and Eric had declined a vitamin K shot when Gwen was born and instead had been giving Gwen oral vitamin K drops, which they trusted would protect her.
asserted
they → mention → her
Malouf tried another type of pretreated gauze.
asserted
Malouf → try → gauze
When that didn’t work, medical records show, she turned to silver nitrate, a chemical applied to the tip of a long matchlike stick that cauterizes blood vessels.
asserted
that → work → vessels
Malouf rotated one stick after another inside Gwen’s belly button.
asserted
Malouf → rotate → button
Since the 1960s, the vast majority of newborns in the United States have received a vitamin K shot.
asserted
majority → receive → shot
The injection virtually eliminated vitamin K deficiency bleeding, a rare condition that can cause catastrophic bleeding and even death.
asserted
that → eliminate → bleeding
But a shift in recent years has threatened to upend the unwavering protection that many doctors and hospitals had taken for granted.
asserted
doctors → threaten → that
Families — mistrustful of medical interventions, misled by social media and devoted to a birth experience they deem natural — have begun to shun the vitamin K shot.
asserted
they → mislead → shot
A pair of studies published last week, both of which involved millions of births, found that babies who didn’t get the vitamin K shot had an increased risk of bleeding.
asserted
who → publish → bleeding
One of the studies found that between 2017 and 2025, the rate of vitamin K deficiency bleeding increased a staggering 347%.
asserted
rate → find → bleeding
Without the single, inexpensive shot — which is not a vaccine — babies are dying.
asserted
babies → die → shot
Autopsies reveal how babies’ systems shut down without warning and well-meaning parents who declined the vitamin K shot were left mourning the loss of their children.
Malouf kept trying to stop the bleeding.
asserted
Malouf → reveal → bleeding
Over the course of nearly three hours, she used seven methods.
asserted
she → use → methods
At one point, she applied so much pressure to a bandage that, Stephanie said, Gwen threw up.
asserted
Gwen → apply → bandage
The remedies essentially treated the symptoms and not the cause, like putting a cover on a leaking faucet.
asserted
remedies → treat → faucet
Malouf said she called her husband, who’s also a doctor, as well as a nurse at a local hospital, to see if she was missing something.
asserted
she → say → something
The nurse’s only suggestions were the ones that Malouf had already tried.
asserted
Malouf → try → that
Malouf decided to transfer Gwen to a small, local hospital, which at least had pediatric specialists and a neonatal intensive care unit.
asserted
which → decide → specialists
But while she waited for a call back to confirm the hospital would accept Gwen, Stephanie walked out of the room to tell her that Gwen had bled through the latest dressing.
asserted
Gwen → wait → dressing
Malouf, according to the records, quickly checked to see how long it was taking her blood vessels to refill.
uncertain
it → accord → vessels
It was slower than when she arrived.
asserted
she → arrive → ?
Gwen’s condition was growing more dire, and Malouf had reached the limits of what she could do.
uncertain
she → grow → what
What followed also wouldn’t be enough.
asserted
followed → follow → ?
Stephanie had given birth to Gwen without complications in an inflatable tub in their living room.
asserted
Stephanie → give → room
She was perfect, with doelike eyes and a full head of brown hair that, when the light hit it, hinted at the red of her father’s beard.
asserted
light → hit → beard
Her older brothers and sisters fussed over her like a birthday present.
asserted
brothers → fuss → present
…and 267 more, not listed.
The Aporia
