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Baby’s death still haunts Youngstown couple
EDITOR’S NOTE — As 2014 winds down, The Vindicator is taking a daily look back at the people and events that made this year unforgettable. “The Vindicator Rewind” will highlight and update a memorable story from 2014.
YOUNGSTOWN
The pain has not subsided.
“One day at a time” is how Jaslyn Abrams and her fiance, Teandre Perry, continue to try to deal with the unexpected death of their 21/2-month-old daughter, Noelle.
Born March 28, Noelle died June 15, on Father’s Day.
First interviewed in August, the couple said Dec. 18, just six months since the little girl’s death, that they are “getting toward moving on, but we still take it one day at a time.”
The probable cause of Noelle’s death, based on the results of a battery of tests that Trumbull County Coroner Dr. Humphrey D. Germaniuk orders on all unexplained infant deaths, is positional asphyxia, a form of asphyxia that occurs when someone’s position prevents them from breathing.
“It was an unforeseen and unavoidable accident,” Dr. Germaniuk said.
Jaslyn’s pregnancy was normal.
Noelle was born at 38 weeks, weighing just under 5 pounds but did not require neonatal intensive-care.
Jaslyn and Noelle had been at the house of a friend in Warren. They had gone somewhere and returned about 12:30 a.m., and because of the late hour decided to stay there rather than going back to Youngstown.
In the original Vindicator story in August, Jaslyn said she changed Noelle’s diaper about 1:30 a.m. and gave her a pacifier, and she went to sleep.”
Jaslyn woke up at 6 a.m. in the bed she was sharing with Noelle, went to the bathroom and when she came back she touched her daughter’s feet and they felt cool. Then she saw Noelle’s chest was not moving and that she was not breathing. She rushed her to ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital about 10 minutes away where medical personnel performed CPR for an hour — to no avail.
Jaslyn said Noelle was lying on the same bed with her, but she is adamant that she didn’t roll on her.
“I know that. The only blanket I had on her was up to her waist,” she also said in the August interview.
Before Noelle, Jaslyn had three miscarriages and a daughter born in January 2013 who lived just three days.
Considered high-risk because of that history, she went to an obstetrician- gynecologist during the entire pregnancy with Noelle and had progesterone shots to reduce the chances of a pre-term birth.
Asked in August why she agreed to be interviewed about such a painful subject, she said she hoped her story could help somebody.
Asked if she and Teandre planned to have another child, she hesitated and said: “More no than yes at this point.”
“I try to keep myself busy so I don’t think so much about Noelle’s death and get on with life,” she said.