Mother Spreads Awareness For Shaken Baby Syndrome

One local woman is using the loss of her baby girl, to spread hope and is making sure her legacy lives on. We want to warn you that what you are about to read may be disturbing to some.

“I only had her for a short amount of time but those short three months changed my entire life,” says Kim Threet.

On April 5th 2003, Hailee was in her father’s care when he took her to the hospital.

“After a couple of hours it came to be that  Hailee had been shaken, her retinas were completely detached from the back of her eyes. We had to fly her to salt lake and the next day they told me Hailee was brain-dead,” says Threet.

Doctors put Hailee on life support.

“The whole room began to spin. And I couldn’t breathe I felt like I was suffocating and I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe. And he said we’re going to take her off life support and I said ‘could we wait for a miracle?’ and he said ‘I promise Kim there won’t be a miracle’ and I was sobbing and he said ‘We need to think of alternate plans,’ and I said, what do you mean alternate?”

That alternate plan, organ donation.

“And I looked at the doctor and said ‘that’s it.’ that’s what I’m supposed to do. If I can save another family from going through what I’m going through right now then I’ll do it, if that’s what I need to do that’s her job here, that’s the purpose of all of this. We were able to donate her heart and her liver to two different little boys.”

“Before the organ donation they let me hold her and I was able to listen to her heartbeat in this for the last time. And I’ve held onto it for the last 15 years hoping that maybe someday I’ll get the chance to use it on the little boy that has her heart and listen to her heartbeat again.”

Baby Hailee was able to save the lives of two kids and inspire her family.

“On the way here my daughter was saying that Hailee is her best friend. And they have a huge bond and she’s a huge part of our life and she’s set such a  big example for our kids about what it is to give and they say she’s their hero.”

And Hailee memory will continue to live on.

“I’m just grateful that I got the time that I did with her and the role that she has played in my life and the example that she’ll forever be for me and my kids and my husband.”

Hailee’s father, who is not Kim’s current husband, was charged with second-degree murder and served time for Hailee’s death.

Kim threet says she plans to help others who have lost infants.   

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Scott Juceam is one of the leading advocates against Shaken Baby Syndrome. Scott’s life changed when his daughter Hannah was shaken to death by her nanny in 2006. Since then, Scott has dedicated his life to preventing Shaken Baby Syndrome and child abuse.

To learn more about me, please visit my website at www.ScottJuceam.com or you can click here.

Police: Man Shook And Slammed Baby Whose Brain Injuries Required Coma

Police say a 32-year-old Wisconsin Rapids man shook and hit his 3-month-old daughter, causing brain damage that required doctors to put her in a medically induced coma for a month.

Joseph P. Lemay, 32, Wisconsin Rapids, is in jail on a $100,000 cash bond set Friday by Wood County Circuit Judge Greg Potter for two counts of child abuse and two felony counts of child neglect.

Police charged the baby’s mother, Meghan E. Newman, 33, of Marshfield, with a felony charge of neglecting a child; the baby’s injuries occurred while Newman was away for the weekend.

According to court documents: 

Doctors at the Marshfield Medical Center on Feb. 18 reported to the Marshfield Police Department concerns about injuries suffered by a 3-month-old baby girl. The girl was bruised across her body, had “significant” brain bleeding and was having seizures, according to a doctor. 

The doctor told police the baby had serious injuries consistent with child abuse and shaken baby syndrome. The doctor said because the baby suffered significant brain trauma and brain hemorrhaging, doctors had to sedate her into a medically-induced coma where she would remain almost a month. 

Lemay told detectives he became frustrated with the baby when he was watching her for a weekend, and she wouldn’t stop crying and “slammed her onto the couch” a couple of times, which may have made her head shake. When detectives said that wouldn’t have caused the baby’s injuries, Lemay said he had become frustrated with the baby on the morning of Feb. 17 because she wouldn’t stop crying. He said he shook her in her bouncy seat for about 30 seconds, making her head snap back and forth. 

Lemay said when he finished shaking his daughter, she looked at him with a shocked expression and immediately began to cry. 

Lemay said he shook his daughter even more aggressively the next day when he again became frustrated with her crying. He said he shook her for one to two minutes with her head snapping back and forth. 

Newman told detectives that she left her children, including their 3-month-old baby, home with Lemay. Newman left town with friends at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 16. 

Newman said Lemay called her six times on the morning of Feb. 17. He told her the baby was throwing up and Newman told him to give the baby some medicine she had in the house. Newman told a detective that nothing Lemay said made her think something was seriously wrong with the baby. 

Lemay again called Newman on Sunday morning and said the baby threw up again. Newman wasn’t concerned and returned home as planned on Sunday evening. Newman told detectives the baby was warm to the touch when she arrived home and she decided to give her a bath. Newman noticed bruises on the baby but continued the bath rather than ask Lemay about them. 

When the baby began having seizures, Newman took her to Marshfield Medical Center. 

Newman told a detective she knew Lemay could get violent at times. She said she would have a neighbor look in on him as a safety precaution when he was watching the children. She did not have anyone check on Lemay during her weekend away. 

Lemay had been convicted of first-degree reckless injury in 2007 after he and another man beat a Marshfield man with a pipe. Lemay was sentenced to eight years in prison and eight years extended supervision, according to court records. 

Lemay said he and Newman both knew he was not supposed to spend the night at her residence and he was not supposed to have contact with children as part of the terms of his extended supervision. Police said Lemay told them Newman knew he had a history of violence with children. Doctors do not yet know how extensive the damage is to the baby’s brain.

Lemay’s next court appearance is scheduled for Friday. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 105 years in prison. Newman faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, if she is convicted. 

Newman is scheduled to make an initial appearance May 14 on a felony charge of neglecting a child and misdemeanor charges of encouraging a parole violation and obstructing an officer. 

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Scott Juceam is one of the leading advocates against Shaken Baby Syndrome. Scott’s life changed when his daughter Hannah was shaken to death by her nanny in 2006. Since then, Scott has dedicated his life to preventing Shaken Baby Syndrome and child abuse.

To learn more about me, please visit my website at www.ScottJuceam.com or you can click here.

Greenacres-Area Woman Arrested For Shaking Baby

A baby’s hysterical cries screamed through the home as a Friday night in March turned into a Saturday morning.

The little girl’s caregiver, Kyanna Trenier Johnson, was exhausted. She picked up the 9-month-old and shook her. 

The Greenacres-area woman told a Palm Beach County sheriff’s detective she wasn’t sure how long, or how forcefully, she shook the baby.

All she knew was that the baby stopped the crying. 

Within 48 hours, the baby underwent brain surgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, sheriff’s records state. She has multiple skull fractures, brain hemorrhaging and ruptures in her eye tissues. The injuries could be life-threatening, a doctor told sheriff’s authorities. By Tuesday, though, the baby’s condition had improved, a family member told The Post. 

Johnson, 28, was arrested early Saturday on an aggravated child abuse charge. She was released that afternoon on a $15,000 surety bond and ordered not to have contact with the baby, who is now 10 months old.

Johnson declined to comment for this story. However, a family member said he didn’t believe Johnson ever would hurt the child. 

Johnson does not appear to have a criminal history in Palm Beach County. 

The Florida Department of Children and Families said it plans “to hold the individual responsible to fullest extent of the law.”

“I am absolutely appalled that anyone would abuse an innocent child this way,” Secretary Mike Carroll said in a statement released late Tuesday.

A detective and a DCF investigator met with Johnson on March 26 in a waiting room outside St. Mary’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. 

Johnson, whose relationship with the infant is redacted from sheriff’s records, said the little girl hit her head in the bathtub about a week ago. Days after, the infant barely ate, slept unusual hours and cried incessantly. 

Johnson figured she had either a cold or growing pains. 

A few days later, the baby’s cries became hysterical screams, Johnson said. Late March 23, or early March 24, Johnson picked the shrieking baby up from the crib and shook her. 

The crying stopped.

Early on March 25, Johnson checked on the baby and noticed her diaper was wet. She positioned the baby to change her and noticed the little girl “was moaning (a) really soft, pitiful cry like a kitten or something,” she told authorities. 

The baby barely could keep her right eye open. She was limp and nearly unresponsive. She called 911. 

Preventing shaken baby syndrome

Doctors and researchers say education and counseling on normal infant-crying patterns and greater care for overwhelmed parents and caretakers can keep Shaken Baby Syndrome from happening. For more information, go online to www.dontshake.org/learn-more or call the

Johnson initially denied ever shaking the baby. Her live-in boyfriend, whom The Post is not naming because he does not face charges, said he hadn’t seen Johnson hurt the child. He never shook the baby, either, he said.

But when detectives spoke with Johnson again Friday — after a doctor determined the only way the baby could have sustained such seriously injured was by “severe shaking” — Johnson tearfully told a detective she never meant to hurt the baby. The detective noted in the arrest report how remorseful Johnson seemed. 

Records indicate she lives just outside the Greenacres city limits near Lake Worth and Haverhill roads with her boyfriend and two other children, 8 and 3.

However, it’s unclear whether that is where she was when she shook the baby. 

The child’s siblings are in the care of a relative, DCF said late Tuesday.

Click here to read the original.

Scott Juceam is one of the leading advocates against Shaken Baby Syndrome. Scott’s life changed when his daughter Hannah was shaken to death by her nanny in 2006. Since then, Scott has dedicated his life to preventing Shaken Baby Syndrome and child abuse.

To learn more about me, please visit my website at www.ScottJuceam.com or you can click here.