16 hours ago
A Doctor Posted Video of Their Decapitated Baby. They Were Awarded $2.5 Million.
A jury on Wednesday awarded nearly $2.5 million to a Georgia couple whose baby was decapitated during childbirth, after a video from the infant's autopsy was posted on social media without their consent, according to a defense lawyer and court documents.
Jessica Ross had been in labor for several hours with her first child on July 10, 2023, when the baby became stuck behind her pelvic bone, according to court documents.
Ms. Ross and her partner, Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., accused their obstetrician in a separate lawsuit of applying excessive force to the baby's neck, separating the head from the body.
The couple did not get to see their baby, whom they named Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr., after he was delivered at Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, Ga., about 13 miles south of downtown Atlanta.
Doctors and nurses did not tell them he had been decapitated, according to court documents.
After Ms. Ross was discharged from the hospital, the funeral home alerted her to the condition of her baby's body, according to court documents. She hired Dr. Jackson Gates, a pathologist, to perform an autopsy.
Two days after he was hired, Dr. Gates posted a video to his Instagram account that 'showed in graphic and grisly detail a postmortem examination' of their infant's 'decapitated, severed head,' lawyers for Ms. Ross and Mr. Taylor said in their complaint.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
