A Georgia family is suing a doctor and the hospital where their kid was born after his neck was allegedly severed during delivery. Dr. Tracey St. Julian and Southern Regional Medical Center in Riverdale, Georgia, became the focus of a formal complaint on Wednesday. According to USA Today, Jessica Ross, twenty, gave birth to her first kid on July 9 at the same hospital.
The complaint claims that the defendants’ “gross negligence,” “fraud,” and “intentional infliction of mental distress” were caused by the baby’s “trapped” status during birth. Dr. St. Julian allegedly postponed an operation because he did not want to wait for backup. Dr. Roderick Edmond, the family’s attorney, believes the doctor put “ridiculously excessive force” on the baby’s head and neck during delivery.
According to the lawsuit, Dr. St. Julian took more than three hours to perform a cesarean section on Ross. The monitoring showed that the fetus’s heartbeat had stopped. The baby’s head was delivered normally during the cesarean section, but Edmond remembered a horrifying incident in which the baby’s body and legs were severed. He said that the baby’s head was wrapped in such a way that it seemed to be still connected.
The parents allegedly demanded a C-section while the baby’s life was still in danger but were rejected. Another parent’s attorney, Cory Lynch, described the couple’s anguish, saying that what should have been a “horrifying experience” with their infant turned out to be “a cover-up” by Southern Regional Medical Center.
Southern Regional Medical Center’s representative, Kimberly Golden-Benner, disputed the charges and stated that the hospital would not comment on current litigation. The hospital issued a statement to the media in which they conveyed their sorrow to the family and reiterated their commitment to patient-centered care.
The statement went on to say that Dr. St. Julian was not employed by the organization under investigation. Dr. St. Julian works at Premier Women’s OBGYN, a facility that provides a wide range of services, including pregnancy and delivery. She graduated from medical school in January 2005 and has been practicing obstetrics and gynecology in the Atlanta region ever since.
Clayton County police have stated that they have begun an investigation into the child’s death and are conducting preliminary interviews. In the aftermath of this tragedy, questions have been raised concerning the standards of care during childbirth and the responsibility of medical practitioners.
