The baby was born full-term and healthy, but now, just a few weeks later, lay limp and unresponsive, barely breathing.

“The baby was diagnosed with bleeding in the brain,” said Dr. Ivana Culic, a neonatologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and medical director of the special care nursery at Beverly Hospital. “Babies that suffer intracranial bleeding — or bleeding in the brain — unfortunately suffer damage that can be lifelong.”

The child survived. Medical privacy rules bar Culic from revealing more details of this recent Boston-area case she saw, but she could say this: The parents of the baby had refused the standard shot of Vitamin K that would almost certainly have prevented that bleed.

“Personally, it is actually really hard to take care of any infant or baby that is sick,” she said. “But when you realize that a severe illness was completely preventable, that is something that is really hard for everyone to comprehend and deal with in our field.”

More: When New Parents Refuse Vitamin K Shots And Their Babies Get Brain Bleeds