Treveon Taylor baby decapitated during childbirth declared homicide and the result of the actions of another person. DA to decide whether to file criminal charges amid lawsuit brought on by parents, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr.
A newborn who was decapitated during delivery has been ruled a homicide. A decision on whether charges will now be filed against the doctor who delivered the baby will be decided by the District Attorney’s Office.
On Tuesday, the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the July 10, 2023 incident involving newborn Treveon Isaiah Taylor, Jr. a homicide, WANF reported.
The medical examiner said a problem with the baby’s shoulders during birth (shoulder dystocia) and the stopping of labor entrapped the baby in the birth canal. Pregnancy-induced diabetes and the premature rupture of membranes were contributing factors, the medical examiner said, to a death caused by the ‘actions of another person.’
A complicated childbirth, negligence, bad decisions and then cover up
On July 9, Jessica Ross, 20, was rushed to Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, Georgia after her water broke.
According to a fraud and negligence lawsuit filed last summer by Ross and her partner Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., their baby’s shoulders became stuck in her vaginal canal and she could not give birth naturally ‘due to shoulder dystocia.’
Contributing factors towards the child’s death included the actions of another, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported
Last year’s suit claimed that attending physician Dr. Tracey St. Julian ‘negligently applied excessive traction’ on the baby’s head and the hospital ‘failed to do a Cesarean section in a timely and proper manner’. Additionally, it said it resulted in ‘Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr.’s decapitation and death.’
The baby’s body and legs were removed during a subsequent C-section procedure, but the baby’s head was delivered vaginally, the Associated Press reported.
Will the DA’s office seek to file criminal charges?
The baby, who was the couple’s first child, had been delivered full-term. Ross and Taylor also claimed that the staff attempted to talk them out of an autopsy, and it wasn’t until they had already been discharged from the hospital that the ‘shocked parents’ found out about the decapitation.
According to previous reports, it was the Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home that informed the medical examiner and the family of the newborn’s decapitation.
At the time, the hospital had discouraged the newborn parents from seeking an autopsy, instead telling them to have their son cremated in lieu of taking him to a funeral home.
When the new parents asked if they could see and hold their newborn, the baby was reportedly tightly wrapped in a blanket with his head ‘propped on top of his body’ to conceal the fact that he was decapitated, Fox 5 News reported.
‘This caused immediate, profound emotional and mental anguish for [them]… emotional and mental anguish that they continue to experience and most probably will experience for the rest of their lives,’ the 2023 complaint said, per WANF.
‘They were so excited about the birth of their first child,’ the couple’s attorney Cory Lynch previously told AP. ‘Unfortunately, their dreams and hopes turned into a nightmare that was covered up by Southern Regional Medical Center.’
The family has since filed a lawsuit against the doctor who delivered the baby, Tracey St. Julian, her OBGYN practice, the nurses and doctors involved in the birth and the hospital, citing medical negligence and the wrongful death of the baby. The lawsuit also alleges that the hospital tried to cover up the fact that the baby was decapitated.
Officials with Southern Regional Medical Center issued a statement saying that ‘this unfortunate infant death occurred in utero prior to the delivery and decapitation,’ and said that the doctor who delivered the baby, Tracey St. Julian is not ‘and never has been’ an employee of the hospital.
The Clayton County Police Department said they are no longer in charge of the investigation, per the AJS. A decision on whether charges could be filed against the doctor who delivered the baby will be decided by the District Attorney’s Office.
