Newborn Decapitated During Delivery At GA Hospital: Lawsuit

RIVERDALE, GA — Southern Regional Medical Center is being sued after a 20-year-old woman and her boyfriend claimed their newborn baby was decapitated and died during delivery.

Jessica Ross, and her boyfriend, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., are seeking punitive damages after claiming a physician broke their baby's face, head and neck bones during delivery on July 9. The couple claimed they were not informed of what happened to their newborn until about four days later.

Southern Regional sent a statement to CNN denying accusations referencing the hospital.

The Clayton County Police Department announced Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, that the department is investigating the infant's death, which was reported to the Clayton County Medical Examiner's Office on July 13 — four days later.

Attorneys for Ross and Taylor said at a Wednesday news conference the pair was excited about being first-time parents, but their dream turned into a nightmare during the delivery.

Ross' water broke around 10 a.m. on July 9. Moments later, she was in the labor and delivery unit at Southern Regional, attorneys said. Ross was in labor for about 10 hours before becoming fully dilated around 8:40 p.m.

She was told to start pushing, but the baby's shoulders couldn't fit through the pelvic girdle, attorneys said. This is known as shoulder dystocia, during which a baby's shoulders can get stuck during a vaginal delivery.

"When the womb was open, the feet came out, the body came out, and there was no head," attorneys said at the news conference, saying the head was stuck in the vagina.

Around midnight, Ross was called into a STAT Cesarean section procedure to complete the baby's delivery. Her attorney said the delivery time was 12:11 a.m., July 10.

Taylor and Ross accused Dr. Tracey St. Julian of applying too much pressure while pulling on the baby's head during the initial phase of the delivery, breaking bones in the infant's neck, face and head.

They accused nurses of not advocating for an immediate c-section, and they accused Southern Regional of not seeking quicker assistance from the onsite obstetrician.

Their attorneys claimed the baby's head had been delivered separately from the rest of the body.

Attorneys claimed Ross and Taylor were denied being able to hold their baby after delivery. They accused hospital officials of tightly wrapping the infant so the couple could not see what happened.

"In an attempt to basically misrepresent, miscommunicate to the family, when they wrapped this baby up tightly, they propped the baby's head up on top of the blanket to make it appear as if the baby's head was attached when it wasn't," their attorneys said.

Dr. Roderick Edmond and Keith Lindsay of Edmond & Lindsay, LLP along with attorney Cory Lynch of The Law Office of Cory J. Lynch, LLC, is representing Taylor and Ross.