The manner of death of a Georgia couple’s baby boy, who was decapitated during delivery at a hospital last July, has been ruled a homicide, according to the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The death of Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr., who died at Southern Regional Medical Center in Clayton County, Georgia, on July 10, 2023, while his mother was delivering him, was “caused by the actions of another person,” the medical examiner’s office said in a statement Tuesday.
Southern Regional Medical Center declined to comment on the medical examiner’s ruling “due to current litigation,” a spokesperson told Atlanta Black Star in an email.
The child’s mother, Jessica Ross, who had endured diabetes-related pregnancy complications, was rushed to the hospital after her water broke on the day before his death.
During Ross’s several hours-long natural birth, she encountered further complications as her infant had stopped moving out of her birth canal, Atlanta Black Star previously reported.
She was under the care of OB-GYN Dr. Tracey St. Julian during the troubled delivery.
Ross and the baby’s father, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., sued St. Julian and six other Prime Healthcare Services/Southern Regional Medical Center doctors in metro Atlanta after their child’s disturbing death.
The civil suit claims that St. Julian demonstrated gross negligence during the delivery process.
Southern Regional Medical Center said in a statement that St. Julian is not “and has never been” an employee of the hospital, WSB-TV reported.
St. Julian attempted various methods at delivering the child, including applying eventually fatal forceful traction on the child’s head, Atlanta Black Star previously reported.
A STAT cesarean section was completed on the morning of July 10, and the child’s head was delivered vaginally while his body and legs were removed from his mother surgically, according to a lawsuit filed by the distraught parents.
On Tuesday, the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office listed the baby’s immediate cause of death as “fracture dislocation with complete transection, upper cervical (C1-C2) spine and spinal cord” due to “shoulder dystocia, arrest of labor and fetal entrapment in the birth canal.”
Shoulder dystocia happens when one or both of a baby’s shoulders become stuck inside the mother’s pelvic area during delivery, the Cleveland Clinic defines.
The Clayton County Police Department has referred the criminal investigation into the infant’s death to the District Attorney’s Office, which must decide whether or not to press charges against St. Julian.
Parents Ross and Taylor Sr. filed another lawsuit last September accusing Dr. Jackson L. Gates of allegedly sharing unauthorized photos of the deceased child and his decapitated body via an Instagram post, causing the traumatized and grieving parents “mental and emotional pain and suffering.”
The videos posted on July 14 and July 21 were from the infant’s private autopsy, according to the lawsuit.
