KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The sounds of Derrick babbling and cooing used to fill Alexandria Bowerman's Knoxville home. For an infant, Bowerman said he was growing fast. He was born on Nov. 2, 2020, and by Christmas, he was able to roll both ways. Together, they made happy memories.
"Waking up and playing with him on his play mat was so fun," Bowerman said.
On Jan. 1, 2021, Derrick's father received a call that every parent would dread.
"He just tells me his mom called and said that Derrick's not breathing, Derrick's unresponsive and that the fire department's there," Bowerman said. "It was positional asphyxiation."
The State of the Child report shows more infants died in Tennessee compared to the average number of infant deaths in the U.S. due to suffocation. Shanaya Thomas, the Injury Prevention Coordinator at East Tennessee Children's Hospital, said infants should sleep alone and on their backs in a crib.
"Anytime that the airway has been closed, or limited in an infant, that will produce suffocation," Thomas said. "Remove crib bumpers, remove any kind of soft bedding, pillows, blankets — we really mean alone. It's just the baby in the crib."
Bowerman said when everyone was toasting at midnight on New Year's Eve, Derrick was getting his last bottle. At his grandmother's house, he was laid on an adult-sized mattress with his head on a pillow and he got heavy, Bowerman said.
He then rolled over and he ended up suffocating on the mattress.
"A minor ended up laying him to sleep and when she did, she wasn't aware of the risks that came with putting a baby to sleep on a bed or in a cluttered area," Bowerman said.
Bowerman said she's now on a mission to educate families and spread awareness about how infant deaths can be prevented. Through the Derrick Stone Safe Sleep organization, she said she tries to help others understand the risks of unintentional infant death.
Bowerman said it's really hard when families have nowhere to put the love for a person they lost, and this is how her nonprofit helps.
"I love doing this for him and for other people, but nobody knows how hard and heavy it is and how much it takes out of me, but I wouldn't, I won't stop even when it's heavy," Bowerman said. "There's no moving around, there's only moving forward and when you move forward, you don't move on and leave it behind you carry it with you. The grief will change you and you will always remember that person, and I've learned that my grief is just an expression of love."