The death of a baby who was decapitated during delivery has been ruled a homicide by a medical examiner’s office in the US state of Georgia.
The parents, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr, sued the hospital and the doctor who delivered their baby boy, named Treveon Taylor Jr, in July last year.
Both have denied any wrongdoing.
The Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office found the immediate cause of the baby’s death was a broken neck and human action was to blame, it said in a news release shared by the couple’s legal team.
The boy’s death directly resulted from a fracture of cervical vertebrae in the spine, it said.
The finding appears to confirm allegations made by the boy’s parents in a lawsuit against Southern Regional Medical Centre in Riverdale, Georgia.
They claim that Dr Tracey St Julian delayed a surgical procedure and failed to seek help quickly when the baby became stuck during delivery.
Instead, the parents said that she applied excessive force to the baby’s head and neck.
“This is something that is clearly contraindicated,” their lawyer Roderick Edmond, who is also a physician, told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday.
“No credible, no reasonably competent obstetrician should ever do this.”
About three hours passed before Ms Ross was taken for a cesarean section, according to the couple’s lawsuit filed last August, by which time a fetal monitor had stopped registering a heartbeat.
The C- section removed the baby’s legs and body, but the head was delivered vaginally, according to Mr Edmond.
