Two devastated parents are suing the hospital where their baby was delivered, saying he was decapitated during the birth process.
WARNING: This content may be very disturbing for some readers.
Jessica Ross, 20, was full term when she went into labor on July 9. She and her boyfriend, Treveon Isaiah Taylor, went to Southern Regional Medical Center to have the baby, only for the delivery to go horrifically wrong. When Ross was fully dilated, she began pushing in an attempt for a vaginal delivery, but experienced a shoulder dystocia.
Shoulder dystocia is a condition in which one or both of the baby’s shoulders get stuck inside the mother’s pelvis. Though babies can sometimes be safely delivered vaginally with shoulder dystocia, in some cases, a c-section is necessary.
In Ross’ case, her doctor allegedly tried for hours to pull the baby out using traction, which led to her son’s eventual decapitation and death. According to their lawsuit, the doctor “pulled on the baby’s head and neck so hard and manipulated them so hard, that the bones in the baby’s skull, head and neck were broken.”
The doctor performed an emergency c-section at 11:59pm; at 12:11am, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr.’s body and legs were delivered through the c-section, while his head was delivered vaginally.
The Southern Regional Medical Center has since issued a statement saying the baby died in utero before delivery, but did acknowledge that he was decapitated. “The hospital voluntarily reported the death to the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s office and is cooperating with all investigations,” the statement read. The Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office Thursday told WSB-TV, however, that they knew nothing about the decapitation until they were contacted by the funeral home. Ross and Taylor both said the hospital attempted to hide the decapitation as well.
After the death, when the grieving parents “demanded to see and hold their baby, hospital staff told them that they were not allowed to touch or hold their child.” Instead, they were told they could only see him. “During this viewing, their baby was wrapped tightly in a blanket with his head propped on top of his body in a manner such that those viewing him could not identify that he had been decapitated,” a statement from a family spokesperson said. Furthermore, the lawsuit said the hospital encouraged them to cremate the baby.
The parents didn’t realize what happened until funeral home workers informed them, and urged them to get an autopsy.
Brian Byars, director of the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office, told WSB-TV that they are conducting several investigations into the baby’s death, calling it one of the most troubling cases they’ve ever seen.
“It’s tough for the police department to have to look at these pictures,” he said. “We are grateful for (the funeral home’s) call, because the incident had not yet been reported to us. I really want to thank Willie A. Watkins [the funeral home] for being brave enough and bringing this to our attention.”
Tragically, this is not the only case in which a similar injury has occurred to a child during labor. Another parent experienced a similar situation when she went into premature labor at 23 weeks; hospital staff said because it was so early in the pregnancy, they would not make any attempts to save the baby’s life, despite the mother’s pleas. The mother, Kelly Day, wrote about what happened in a submission to Live Action News:
My son was coming out feet first, with no drugs administered to either induce labor or ease my pain. But I knew they weren’t going to try to save him, despite saying they would if I made it to 23 weeks. I was screaming from both physical and emotional pain, and a doctor popped her head into my room, yelling at me to shut up because I was scaring the mothers in labor (as if I wasn’t one myself). I yelled back at her to get out, and that really upset her. She came all the way into the room then, closing the door while putting on gloves. She walked over, pushed the delivering doctor out of her way, and shoved her arm up inside of me while I was yelling, “Stop! No, don’t!”
It was then that she grabbed my son Ezekiel by his leg… and yanked.
We all heard the snap.
All that was left to be born were his shoulders and head. She then yanked again as everyone in the room yelled at her to stop — and he fell limp and was born.
They weighed him and put him on my chest, refusing to try to help him, saying he was too small and weak. But despite the injuries this doctor caused him — and with no help from the NICU team — he fought to stay alive for six hours all on his own before passing away in our arms.
When children’s lives are ended through negligence, malpractice, or intentional killing in or out of the womb, it is a heartbreaking tragedy in every case.
