'No credible, reasonably competent obstetrician should do this,' says lawyer for baby's parents
The death of a baby who was decapitated during childbirth has been ruled a homicide by the Georgia, United States, medical examiner's office. News from heaven reported.
The parents, Jessica Ross and Treveon Taylor Sr, sued the hospital and the doctor who gave birth to their son, Treveon Taylor Jr, in July last year, but both defendants denied any wrongdoing.
The Clayton County Medical Examiner's Office has ruled that the baby's death was caused by a broken neck and that human action was to blame for a fracture of the cervical vertebrae in the baby's spine.
In a lawsuit filed against Southern Regional Medical Center in Georgia, the boy's parents alleged that Dr. Tracey St Julian delayed a surgical procedure and failed to seek help when the baby became trapped during delivery.
Instead, the parents said she applied excessive force to the baby's head and neck.
“This is something that is clearly contraindicated,” his lawyer Roderick Edmond, who is also a doctor, told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday. “No credible, reasonably competent obstetrician should do this.”
About three hours passed before Ross was taken for a C-section, according to the couple's lawsuit filed last August, when a fetal monitor had stopped recording his heartbeat.
The C-section removed the baby's legs and body, but the head was born vaginally, according to Edmond.
Dr St Julian's lawyers said they reject the conclusion that the baby's injury occurred before his death.
“Although tragic, that rare outcome has been reported in the medical literature and can occur without physician wrongdoing, as is the case here,” they said.
One of the attorneys, Scott Bailey, said the doctor used “every maneuver a reasonable obstetrician would have used” to deliver the baby when her shoulder became trapped.
The court filing accused the couple's legal team of making “lewdly false public statements” to the contrary.
The hospital where the baby was born claimed the baby died in utero and denied negligence in a court filing.
Clayton County police are investigating a case, with the possibility of referring it to prosecutors, according to the medical examiner's office.
