Doctors ‘decapitated my baby during childbirth before medics propped up his head to cover their tracks’
A MUM who claims her baby was decapitated during childbirth has filed a lawsuit against the hospital that tried to “cover their tracks”.
Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr say a doctor used too much force while delivering their baby on July 9.
In a press conference in Atlanta today their attorneys announced the lawsuit against Dr. Tracey St. Julian and Southern Regional Medical Center, a hospital in Riverdale, Georgia.
Attorney Cory Lynch said: “They were so excited about the birth of their first child.
"Unfortunately, their dreams and hopes turned into a nightmare that was covered up by Southern Regional Medical Center.”
According to the suit, the baby got stuck during delivery, but St. Julian delayed a surgical procedure and failed to seek help quickly.
Instead, she applied ridiculously excessive force on the babys head and neck to try to deliver it, attorney Roderick Edmond, who is also a physician, said.
Roughly three hours passed before St. Julian took Ross, 20, for a cesarean section, according to the suit. By then, a fetal monitor had stopped registering a heartbeat.
The cesarean section removed the baby's legs and body, but the head was delivered vaginally, according to Edmond.
The couple asked for a C-section earlier, when the baby still could have survived, but were denied, Edmond said.
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He said the case highlighted the higher rates of infant and maternal mortality for Black women.
Ross and Taylor, 21, did not speak at Wednesday's news conference.
Their attorneys also accused Southern Regional staff of trying to cover up the decapitation by discouraging the couple from getting an autopsy, encouraging them to have their son cremated and wrapping and propping his body to make it appear the head was still attached.
The suit alleges gross negligence, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It seeks unspecified punitive damages.
Southern Regional said in statements it could not discuss treatment for particular patients due to privacy laws, but it denies the allegations against it.
It later added that St. Julian was not an employee of the hospital, and it had taken the appropriate steps in response to this unfortunate situation.
A spokeswoman, Kimberly Golden-Benner, said the hospital could not elaborate.
St. Julian is part of a health care group called Premier Women's Obgyn that has two locations and offers circumcisions, infertility treatment and other services in addition to low- and high-risk obstetric care, according to its website.