A Georgia couple filed a lawsuit last week alleging their child was decapitated during delivery by a doctor who used too much force.
Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr. are suing both the Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale and their obstetrician, Dr. Tracey St. Julian, who is not affiliated with the hospital, after she allegedly applied “ridiculously excessive force” when trying to deliver the baby with shoulder dystocia, according to their attorney, Roderick Edmond. The infant did not survive.
According to the lawsuit, Ross’ water broke around 10 a.m. on July 9 and she arrived at the hospital 10 minutes later. By 8:40 p.m., Ross was fully dilated and was instructed to push. However, the baby did not properly descend, the lawsuit states, likely due to shoulder dystocia, which occurs when a baby’s shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s pubic bone.
NBC News reached out to Premiere Women’s OB/GYN, St. Julian’s practice, but did not immediately hear back. Southern Regional Medical Center said in a statement to NBC News that it denies “the allegations of wrongdoing” and that “this unfortunate infant death occurred in utero prior to the delivery and decapitation.” The hospital also said it voluntarily reported the death to the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office and is “cooperating with all investigations.” The lawsuit says the couple was discouraged from getting an autopsy.
Shoulder dystocia occurs in roughly 3% of vaginal deliveries, and typically happens to women who have reached full term, according to Dr. Kiarra King, an OB-GYN based in Illinois who is not involved in the case. Risk factors for babies experiencing shoulder dystocia include the mother having diabetes or being short in stature. Ross, 20, had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in July 2022 and was considered a high-risk pregnancy, according to the suit.
Another risk factor for shoulder dystocia would be whether the baby weighs more than 4,000 grams or 8 pounds, 13 ounces. (According to the lawsuit, Ross’ baby weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces upon delivery.)
While doctors are able to point out possible risk factors, shoulder dystocia is “not something that we can fully predict,” King said.
Edmond, the couple’s attorney, said nurses and health care providers in the hospital should have had protocols in place to deal with the problem, and according to the lawsuit both St. Julian and the nurses “did not meet the standards of care.”
King said that in her deliveries, a risk factor like diabetes and a larger baby would typically prompt her to offer a couple “a primary C-section with a goal of ideally preventing a shoulder dystocia.”
Even in the moment, the doctor, nurses and other staff “should have agreed that the patient was deserving of a C-section,” said Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, an OB-GYN and founder of the National Birth Equity Collaborative. Neither Crear-Perry nor King were involved in Ross’ medical care.
Ross and Taylor, 21, asked for a cesarean section “while the baby was viable,” Edmond said during a news conference last week, reiterating the allegations made in the couples’ suit. Instead, Ross pushed for three hours without delivering her baby, the suit says, and St. Julian attempted to deliver it vaginally using different methods, one of which included applying traction to the baby’s head.
According to the lawsuit, the fetal monitor showed an abnormal fetal heartbeat starting at 9:26 p.m., and the heart rate continued to decrease until 10:36 p.m. There was no sign of a fetal heartbeat on the monitoring strips by the time St. Julian performed an emergency C–section at 11:49 p.m., the lawsuit states. The baby’s body was delivered at 12:11 a.m.
St. Julian’s alleged “tremendously excessive tension traction” on the head and neck of Ross’ baby, named Treveon Isaiah Jr., resulted in multiple skull and facial bone fractures, hemorrhaging on his neck, brain and around the spinal cord, according to the suit.
Crear-Perry said she has used instruments like forceps and vacuums to help patients with the pushing, but if they prove unsuccessful a C-section is ordered.
In 2020, the infant mortality rate during delivery in the U.S. was 5.4 deaths for every 1,000 live births, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additional data shows that the rate was highest among Black babies, with 10.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.
While the manner in which Ross’ baby died is “incredibly rare, they can happen, but they don’t typically,” King said.
The family is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages for the baby’s life along with Ross’ physical, mental and emotional pain and suffering, according to the suit. Since the incident, Edmond said the couple is in “bad shape” and are currently attending counseling because they have been “psychologically traumatized.”
“With medical trauma, we’re really mindful that one of the things that can compound onto symptoms is when we know that it could have been preventable,” said Millicent Rose, a trauma specialist and professor of clinical psychology at Pepperdine University. “It occurs due to negligence or at the hands of another person.”
The hospital said in a statement that it is unable “to discuss the care and treatment of specific patients” due to patient privacy laws.
Holding a child after birth is a “rite of passage for any mother,” Rose said. Robbing them of that opportunity after loss can cause prolonged grief. The central nervous system interaction between mother and child is also necessary for the mother’s healing, regardless of whether the child survived birth, she added. The couple said in the lawsuit that they were unable to hold their baby. The hospital did not address why the couple could not hold the baby in its statement.
Despite the intense feelings of grief bereaved parents may feel, Rose said she has witnessed families continue their journey to family planning while learning to balance their love for a child who is no longer with them.
“Grief is all the love that you have to give somebody that you now have nowhere to put it,” Rose said. So, for a lot of mothers, when they experience pregnancy, infant or child loss, that overwhelming feeling of love to give another child becomes centered as well. I always encourage mothers to hold on to hope, even after something catastrophic.”