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ASBURY PARK PRESS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1997 THE DREXLER CASE: Medical experts discuss findings Mr baby's tatesttoes a sign that he lived PAGE A6 the reaction of the political right, kids are less likely to get the information that they need. On top of that, contraceptive services are not that easy to cj ...1 fn By REGINA MC ENERY HEALTH WRITER TRACES OF air found in the intestines of Melissa Drexler's baby boy suggest the newborn waged a brief but. fruitless struggle to survive, a New Jersey pathology expert surmised yesterday. Dr. M.

Yusuf Khan, director of autopsy services at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, said the discovery of air in the intestines also suggests that the infant's throat and larynx were obstructed, perhaps broken, forcing air back into the stomach. Khan, who is not involved in the investigation but is an authority on autopsy analysis, was responding yesterday to questions regarding the autppsy of Drexler's baby boy, per was suffocated. The autopsy report said that death was caused by "asphyxia due to manual strangulation and obstruction of the external airway or orifices." Dr. Robert L. Trelstad, chairman of the pathology department at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said when someone is gasping uncontrollably it's usually in response to a blockage in the esophagus and trachea.

If the blockage isn't removed, air eventually escapes into the stomach, which Peacock discovered when he conducted his autopsy. It was this piece of evidence that led prosecutors to charge Drexler with murder. "But whether she killed it or not, she didn't want the child," said Trelstad, who like Khan is not involved in formed by Monmouth County's first assistant medical examiner, Jay Peacock. Drexler's baby was bom secretly June 6 in a bathroom at the 18-year-old's senior prom, concealed inside two plastic bags and dumped in a metal trash bin. The autopsy results, released yesterday by county Prosecutor John Kaye, indicate tie baby was born alive, then strangled and suffocated manually.

Drexler was charged yesterday with murder. She was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Khan said traces of air in the intestines most likely indicate that the "baby put up a struggle," and that the use of the word "manual" in the autopsy report suggests that the infant the investigation. "To me, the issue here is not did she kill the child. The issue is that there are unwanted pregnancies, unwanted lives." Indeed, Dr.

Charles D. Katz, a pediatric psychologist at Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, said Melissa Drexler could have been so anxious or troubled that she detached herself emotionally from the fetus and ended up denying its existence. Such cases often fall under the umbrella of dissociative disorders, a selection of psychiatric conditions usually triggered by a traumatic event or events. Kaye said yesterday that Drexler never told anyone, including her parents, boyfriend or classmates, that she was pregnant. There is no evidence she sought medical attention or counseling either.

Dr. Robert Johnson, director of adolescent and young adult medicine at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, said it is no secret that teen pregnancies are a huge problem in this country. What he has found so troubling about this case was Drexler's apparent failure to seek counseling that might have produced a happier ending. "It is not uncommon among teens to deny the existence of something that is staring at them in the face. Teen-agers are children.

They are not mature adults. They have not matured psychologically, and when something traumatic happens they are galvanized to a stage of inaction," said Johnson. "The thing that helps teens not go through this process of denial is knowledge. But with budget cuts and iinu in suuuiudii, auiueiu cumiiiuiu- ties. It's hard to find someone to talk to." Dr.

Lawrence Shampain, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway Township, said a complete psychiatric evaluation could probably shed some light on what was going through Drexler's mind. "She could have been psychotic or confused or dissociating or completely clear-headed. Everyone is guessing right now," said Shampain. Drexler's lawyers said yesterday they have ordered such an evaluation. Drexler From page Al allegedly killing their newborn son and leaving his body in a trash bin.

Outside his home last night, Drexler's father, John said, "Yes, we're hanging in there. It's a shocker. It's going to be a while before we know what's going to happen." When Drexler's longtime boyfriend, John T. Lewis, arrived at the Drexler home, he was asked how he was coping. 'I'm OK," he said politely.

At the Monmouth County Courthouse earlier, Assistant Prosecutor Elaine Leschot had asked that bail be set at $100,000, but Drexler's lawyer, Steven Secare of Toms River, successfully argued for less, saying Drexler voluntarily surrendered and that her parents had arranged for a $50,000 bond against their home on Falkenburgh Avenue in the Forked River section of Lacey. No one but Drexler knew she was pregnant, Kaye said. At her senior prom at the Garden Manor banquet hall in Aberdeen Township June 6, Drexler delivered the baby Jj Ji-x -r cWVf A 4J, at fan-n-i i 1. 1.. i -1 -l THOMAS P.

COSTEUOStlft Photoraphr Melissa Drexler's parents, John and Maria (above), watch as their daughter makes a first appearance in Monmouth County court yesterday. At right, Prosecutor John Kaye discusses the medical examiner's report that concluded Drexler killed the baby she delivered June 6. Steven Secare (center) is swarmed by the media as he leaves the Monmouth County Courthouse in Freehold yesterday. The Toms River lawyer is representing Melissa Drexler, charged with murder in the death of her newborn boy, delivered at her senior in 10 minutes and nearly succeeded in keeping her pregnancy secret forever. The high school senior arrived about 7:30 p.m.

with Lewis, 20, of Bamegat Township, and "immediately went to the ladies' room," Kaye said. On the ride from Lacey to Aberdeen she had complained of stomach cramps, Kaye said. She was in a bathroom stall for "an unreasonable length of time," during which other promgoers noticed unusual sounds, Kaye said. "People witnessed audibly and visually certain things out of the ordinary human sounds," Kaye said. Witnesses also reported hearing a metal sound, which Kaye said may have been a sanitary napkin disposal bin that may have been used to cut the umbilical cord.

The baby's cord was about 7 inches long, he said, and had a ragged end, "obviously not done surgically." No one reported hearing the cries of a newborn baby. Dr. Phillip J. Resnick, widely viewed as the nation's leading expert on women who kill their babies, said suffocation and strangulation are the two most common methods mothers choose to kill their newborns. "The need to stifle the baby's first cry makes suffocation the method of choice for mothers attempting to avoid detection," said Resnick, interviewed by telephone from his office at the University of Cleveland, where he is a forensic psychiatrist "It's just available.

You don't have a gun or knife with you, but with an infant it's very easy to cover the mouth and nose." From outside the bathroom stall, promgoers also saw Drexler's foot smearing blood on the floor, Kaye said. "She came out, went into a handicapped stall, and appeared to be washing her hands," he said. "After she left the stall she returned to the dance floor and said she's not feeling well. Then she ate a salad." By that time, maintenance workers had been called to clean up a large amount of blood inside the bathroom, Kaye said. Concerned that a student had been injured, school officials searched for a woman in a long, black dress who they were told had just been in the bathroom.

They found Drexler. They brought her into the manager's office and asked if she was OK, Kaye said. "She said, 'Yes, I'm he said. She told school officials she was having a heavier-than-usual menstrual period, Kaye said. Officials accepted the explanation, and she went back to the dance floor.

She danced, but did not request a song, as some people had reported. Meanwhile, a maintenance worker who was taking trash from the bathroom noticed the bag was unusually heavy and got frightened. She called a second maintenance worker, who opened the bag and discovered the dead baby inside. "If the maintenance worker didn't feel the weight, we wouldn't be here," Kaye said. Drexler was questioned a second time, and she admitted the baby was hers.

Dr. Jay Peacock of the Monmouth County medical examiner's office found that the baby died from asphyxia due to strangulation and obstruction of his external airways, Kaye said. After giving birth, Drexler choked the baby and sealed his body inside a plastic bag, Kaye said. Investigators had said determining it- i 1 vtnrv iv 1 1 i 1 1 DAVID BERGELAND 1 Stiff Photojriphtr two hours. But Kaye said yesterday that Peacock found air in the baby's intestines, leading the first assistant medical examiner to conclude the child had been alive.

Kaye would not elaborate, but said additional toxicological tests supported that conclusion. Since the case rests on medical evidence, Secare said, the Drexlers have hired Dr. Michael M. Baden, the former chief medical examiner of New York City, who testified for the defense in OJ. Simpson's murder trial.

Baden will review the autopsy reports and could testify at trial. The family also hired Robert L. Sa-doff, a Pennsylvania psychiatrist who most recently was a prosecution witness in the Jesse Timmendequas death penalty trial. Timmendequas was given the death penalty last week for raping and murdering 7-year-old Megan Kanka of Hamilton Township. Yesterday, Drexler was brought into the courtroom from a rear hallway and stood at the defense table with Secare while her parents, John J.

and Maria, sat alone in the front row. They refused to comment and left the courtroom in silence holding hands. Knowing and purposeful murder is a first-degree crime that carries a penalty of 30 years to life in state prison. Prosecutors also charged Drexler with endangering the welfare of a child, a second-degree crime carrying a prison term of between five and 10 years. The case will be referred to a Monmouth County grand jury, which could take several months to decide if formal charges should be brought If they decide against murder, Drexler could be facing lesser homicide charges, such as aggravated manslaughter or reckless manslaughter.

The baby's body was made available to the family June 16, authorities said, but remains at the county medical ex-, aminer's office at CentraState Medical Center in Freehold Township. Secare said yesterday that the Drexlers apparently did not know the baby was available to them. He also said the 6-pound, 6-ounce baby has not yet been named. On the criminal complaint he's referred to as "Baby Boy Drexler." No information has been released about plans for funeral or memorial services. Staff writers James W.

Prado Roberts and CoriAnne Natoli contributed to this story. whether the baby breathed on his own would be tricky, since rescuers attempted to resuscitate him for nearly Prom birth sounds a wake-up call for other pregnant teens By JAMES W. PRADO ROBERTS STAFF WRITER IF THE GREAT volume of media attention that has focused on Melissa Drexler's high school prom birth has done anything, it's caused a handful of young women about halfway through their pregnancies to make some vital decisions. Several times in the past two weeks, women well into their pregnancy, but who were avoiding making any decisions about it, have walked into fne doors of local Planned Parenthood offices, said Phyllis Kinsler, executive director of Planned Parent hood of Central New Jersey. "They may have suspected they were pregnant," Kinsler said.

"They may have been waiting for a clearer sign, and perhaps the person they have been reading about didn't get one, so they decided to come in." Officials in the Monmouth County prosecutor's office have said Drexler kept her pregnancy secret. Yesterday, Prosecutor John Kaye said a medical examiner concluded Drexler strangled or suffocated her newborn after giving birth in a bathroom stall. Kinsler said one teen said, "I didn't think I was going to do anything that have been procrastinating on," she said. "It is not unusual for human beings to go through a scary time. Some people's style is to blurt it out; that is their way of dealing with stress.

Other people are looking for the right moment and are waiting for it to happen. But unlike other things that can go on indefinitely, a pregnancy has a definite end." But some of the attention given the Melissa Drexler case, and the five other recent alleged infanticides and abandonments in New Jersey since October, may have been harmful, Kinsler said. drastic, but I just realized I didn't have that much time left to talk to my parents." She quoted another as saying, "I sort of realized, my goodness, it's going to sneak up on me, too." And although many people have questioned how it could happen that a young woman would give birth to a baby without anyone knowing about the pregnancy, sometimes it will occur because the teen couldn't find the right opportunity, the right time to discuss it, Kinsler said. "Everyone who thirds that is incredible, I wish they would think about some other conversation they "I do have a concern when the focus of the media coverage is still so much on judgment and punishment, without even knowing what is warranted. It is not the kind of environment that encourages scared people to reach out to help.

And what we want to do is to let every young woman, every young man involved, every parent know that unfortunately they are not alone, that they are not facing a situation that is unique." "We hope there are a lot of parents out there who are saying, think we talked, I think you understand, we just don't want to pass up another oppor tunity for you to talk to and also to say, 'If you can't, I hope that you talk to someone Noted Judy Miller, director of pri-; mary care and public health at the Central Jersey Visiting Nurse Associ-; ation, "I think young people become frightened, I think young people be- come panicked, and I think that we all need to be sure we know the sources available so that we keep the information out there. I think that when something like this happens it gives all of us a ienewed opportunity to really get the message out in a way that is heard.".