The death of an infant who was decapitated in childbirth has been ruled a homicide.
The Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the grim update, which is at the center of a shocking lawsuit. Plaintiff Jessica Ross went into labor on July 9th, 2023, at Southern Regional Medical Center in Clayton County. After 10 hours of labor, OBGYN Tracy St. Julian began trying to pull the stuck baby out and continued doing so for hours after refusing to do an emergency c-section. St. Julian pulled aggressively on the infant’s head and neck with so much force that multiple bones were broken, leading to the decapitation. When a c-section was finally performed, the child was already deceased. The baby’s torso and legs had to be delivered surgically, while the head was delivered vaginally. Ross says the hospital staff then propped her baby’s head up on the body to hide the fact that it was not attached to cover up the decapitation.
As if her ordeal was not traumatic enough, the independent pathologist Dr. Jackson Gates, whom the family hired out of their own pocket, shared images of Ross’s deceased baby on Instagram. Dr. Gates claimed the now-deleted photos and videos of the child’s full face and organs were only shared for educational purposes.
Southern Regional Medical Center has attempted to avoid responsibility, claiming that St. Julian is not “and never has been” an employee of the hospital. Still, they are being named in Ross’s lawsuit.
As of now, criminal charges have not yet been filed.
