Vic Valbuena Bareng/ViewJason Kuckler, left, and his wife, Paula Yakubik, spend time with their 3-year-old son Ryan at their home.
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Take a break. Take a breath.
That's the message behind the new public service announcement being run to make people aware of the dangers of shaken baby syndrome.
Paula Yakubik is the mother behind the message. She and her husband, Jason Kuckler, established the Nevada Child Abuse Prevention organization in 2005 after their own child was a victim.
Yakubik recalled that day in December 2004, when the nightmare began. She and Kuckler were in Phoenix when their nanny called at about 11 a.m. Something was wrong with their 3-month-old son Ryan. He was having difficulty breathing, Yakubik explained.
After instructing her nanny to call 911 immediately, they placed an urgent call to other family members, then raced to the airport to catch the next flight back to Las Vegas.
"But it was Dec. 30 and everything was booked solid because of New Year's Eve," said Yakubik. "Every seat was taken."
She said she and her husband ended up on a four-seat prop plane that flew so slowly, it took four hours to fly from Phoenix to Las Vegas.
When they landed, it was dark. Meanwhile, Ryan was in the intensive care unit at University Medical Center, where grandparents and aunts and uncles watched over him. Five doctors were addressing his injuries, Yakubik said.
"When we got there, Ryan was sleeping," Yakubik said. "My dad said to me, 'The worst is over.' I thought, 'No, the worst hasn't even begun yet.' "
Doctors had already warned that there were no guarantees and that developmental problems might not show up for years. An X-ray determined that it was not the first time Ryan had been abused. His brain showed signs of healing from an earlier trauma.
Because their other child Ashley, then 17 months old, also was under the care of the nanny, she was checked, as well. There were no signs of abuse, Yakubik said.
"But I remembered one time when I'd come home and she'd had a (bruise) on her forehead and the nanny had said, 'Oh, she got hit by a swing,' " Yakubik said. "So, I wonder, did she really get hit by a swing?"
Yakubik owns and operates a public relations company, Mass Media. In the late 1990s, she was a writer for View Neighborhood Newspapers. Kuckler is a real estate developer.
"We got a lot of feedback from people (saying) they could relate," Kuckler said. "The most important message is that this can happen to anyone."
Dr. Neha Mehta of Sunrise Children's Hospital said shaking a baby is a form of child abuse.
"Shaking a baby can take only a few seconds to do, but it can cause a lifetime of injury to the child," Mehta said.
The nanny, Bethany Ford, was convicted of two felony counts of abuse and was sentenced to two to eight years in prison by District Judge Donald Mosley on May 13, 2006.
"I sat in on her deposition and realized that she's mentally unsound," Yakubik said. "She had a life of abuse herself. I told her that I feel sorry for her."
As for Ryan, he stayed in intensive care for about eight days before he was released. He was never without at least one family member at his side, praying for him, watching over him.
When he was released, doctors were unsure whether he'd be able to see again, Yakubik said. There was so much blood pooled around his retinas, she said, that doctors could not determine the extent of the damage
Ryan is now 3 and has his eyesight back. But not a day goes by, his parents said, that they don't question whether he is developing normally.
He is the poster child for Nevada Child Abuse Prevention's latest program, aimed at preventing shaken baby syndrome. Posters are available for free at www.childabusepreventionnevada.org.
In addition, area hospitals will distribute a total of 20,000 free kits to mothers giving birth.
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