A US medical examiner has ruled that the decapitation of an infant during delivery was a homicide, resulting directly from a fracture of cervical vertebrae in the spine after the doctor had attempted to extract him.
The baby’s parents, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor, had filed a lawsuit last year alleging their obstetrician, Dr Tracey St Julian, used “ridiculously excessive force” while delivering their child, and then failed to inform them that he had been decapitated.
The couple subsequently sued her and the Southern Regional Medical Centre in Georgia, reports NBC News.
Labour
During the delivery, the baby did not properly descend, probably because of shoulder dystocia, a condition that occurs when a baby’s shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s pubic bone during labour.
Ross had asked for a Caesarean section while her son “was viable”, but she was denied one, according to the lawsuit.
Instead, she pushed for three hours without delivering her baby.
According to the lawsuit, St Julian, who is a member of a private practice and not employed by the hospital, tried to deliver the baby vaginally through various methods, including applying traction to the baby’s head.
That resulted in decapitation and other injuries, including multiple skull and facial bone fractures, according to the lawsuit. The baby’s body was delivered through an emergency C-section.
Betty Honey, the medical examiner’s chief investigator, became involved in the case after a funeral home overseeing the baby’s services reported it was “unusual” that the medical examiner’s office had not yet been involved.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Medical Examiner’s Office performed another autopsy, and subsequently, Honey and the medical examiner’s office director consulted ob-gyns experts for independent feedback.
Honey also contacted a private forensic pathologist to review findings to determine the cause of death.
No wrongdoing
The hospital denied allegations of wrongdoing and said that the death “occurred in utero prior to the delivery and decapitation”.
It also said it voluntarily reported the death to the Medical Examiner’s Office and was “co-operating with all investigations.”
Neither St Julian nor her practice responded to a request for comment.
The lawsuit alleged she and the nurses at the hospital “did not meet the standards of care”.
“We’re going to depose everybody who was in the room,” said the couple’s attorney, Roderick Edmond. “All the nurses, the scrub techs – everybody – to find out, essentially, what the hell happened.”
NBC article – Georgia baby’s decapitation during labor is ruled a homicide by medical examiner
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Doctor not culpable in baby’s head decapitation case
Parents sue after baby decapitated during birth
UK gynaecologist before medical tribunal after bungled delivery decapitates baby