Preventable infant bleeding deaths are rising in the US as more parents refuse the vitamin K shot given at birth, according to a ProPublica investigation and a JAMA study of 5+ million births. Infants without the shot face severe brain bleeding, seizures, and death within weeks of birth — all preventable with the standard injection. Medical experts say the refusal trend, possibly linked to vaccine hesitancy, contradicts decades of evidence showing vitamin K dramatically reduces bleeding risk in newborns who lack the ability to produce it naturally.