August 20th, 2011 life as our family of eight knew it drastically changed. Our son, Judah Forrest James was 5 weeks old. His first five weeks of life had been “normal.” He was full term when born. I had a great pregnancy and beautiful birth. However, this particular day we thought Judah had the stomach flu. He had thrown up a few times. By the time our other children went to bed Judah seemed very lethargic. We tried to wake him up to eat….to no avail. He was “too sleepy.” After a call to our midwife for advice we began packing our things to head out to the hospital. I was in the kitchen finding items for the diaper bag. Chad was in our bedroom changing Judah’s diaper. I suddenly heard him screaming, “JUDAH!!!!! JUDAH!!! Come on, buddy!!! Krista!! CALL 911!!!!” ….Judah had a seizure and stopped breathing…. A 911 call, transport to Lakeland Regional Hospital, whirlwind of tests, another transport to Tampa General Hospital, and surgery to place a temporary shunt in Judah’s brain… This was clearly not the stomach flu…
Judah suffered two brain hemorrhages believed to have been caused by Late Onset Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn…a rare vitamin K deficiency. Judah wasn’t expected to live. We were told that if he did live he’d most likely be brain-dead, blind and deaf. But our Judah is alive!!! He was in the hospital for 10 days – a miracle! He later returned to the hospital at 3 months of age for one more surgery. Judah had developed hydrocephalus and needed a permanent shunt placed in his brain to drain into his abdomen.
(For more of this story visit https://judahsjourney.com/2013/01/08/back-to-the-beginning/ )
Since that time our days have been filled pursuing every therapy and treatment we can find to help our little boy. He currently has physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and vision therapy each week. We have two 90-minute sessions in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber each day. He also sees a chiropractor, Anat Baniel therapist and 7 specialists quite regularly. Judah is 18 months old but his development is significantly delayed. Last year at this time Judah was paralyzed on his left side, had little muscle tone or strength in his core, and was unable to see anything except for light. He makes progress every week and we are so thankful! He is able to move his left side and his left hand is grasping objects. He is babbling more and has the cutest little voice. He’s interacting with us, reaching for our faces, and initiating play. Eating is getting easier. His vision is returning and he’s able to see black and white images. And he’s very close to being able to sit up on his own.
Thank you for being a part of Judah’s journey to his complete healing.
Judah's Journey 
I am a first time mom to be who is researching the Vitamin K shot. I do know that all babies are born with low levels of Vitamin K until the 8th day in which the levels rise significantly. This goes in line with Genesis 17:10-12. In these verses God commands Abraham to circumcise every newborn male child on the 8th day.
I have read stories like yours that are heartbreaking. The question I have is was Judah circumcised? On what day was he circumcised?
I thank you for your time and help in my research to make an informed decision.
Shalom!
Hi Suzi. 🙂 Yes, Judah was circumcised on the 8th day. He didn’t have any clotting issues at that time. I emailed you more details as well. 🙂
Hello Krista, I don’t know where to begin but I found your story while researching this illness and I desperately want to reach out to you for hope for our family. I can see that you are family in Christ. Our son Elijah Lazarus was born November 1, 2014 and at exactly 5 weeks old he got sick. On Saturday night he had emergency brain surgery on the right side for a large blood clot and the next day a second surgery for placing a drain. The doctor didn’t think he would even make it throughout the weekend but The Lord had a plan for his life and he is alive and we have no idea the extent of brain damage because he is still under a medically induced coma to keep him still for healing. If you would have time and were willing, it would be a huge blessing to us if you were to contact us back.
hi Krista,
you are such an inspiration to me…
I lost my second son to late heamorragic disease of new born due to vit k deficiency this march.. even though my son was given the vit k shot at birth, he developed the deficiency which is rare.. my son was developing normally until 6 weeks when suddenly on Feb 14 th night he was too lethargic and vomited twice.. we took him to emergency care and found he got massive heamorrage in left side of brain..doctors advised us to remove life support.. but we had his surgery done and treated him.. he recovered well but suddenly developed sepsis and he could not fight any longer.. every day I miss my son badly and I’m very unsure of how he could develop this disease even after giving him vit k shot…vit k shot is mandatory in India…
when I was browsing on vit k deficiency bleeding I came across Ur blog..
u r such a wonderful mother to Judah and Judah is truly a miracle..
I will keep him in my prayers and I’m sure god will give him complete healing…
oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!!! Praying for you!! Thank you for sharing your journey with me.
Hi Krista..thank you..if you are comfortable can you please share what measures you took for your pregnancy after Judah to prevent Vit k deficiency.. Were you able to find what caused this Vit K deficiency for him.. Im searching for answers to know what would have caused the deficiency for my son inspite of giving him Vit k shot at birth… Im having sleepless nights, my heart is full of sorrow.. is this deficiency purely due to breast feeding… im seeing in websites this deficiency comes to only purely breast fed babies.. Please share if you had got some answers for the cause of this..
Hi there! I’m so sorry to hear of what you have been through.
Judah does have the mthfr gene mutation and we also recently found out that his bleeds started in utero. My email address is kristadearey@gmail.com – send me an email and we can discuss further. Also, there is a group of us moms on Facebook. 🙂