Following a finding that a pathologist breached the privacy of a Georgia couple by sharing horrific autopsy footage of their kid on social media, the couple was awarded almost $2 million in damages.
The couple’s baby was decapitated during childbirth, and the pathologist was found to have infringed their privacy.
In the case brought against the pathologist who released the video, Dr. Jackson Gates, and his company, Medical Diagnostic Choices in Atlanta, Jessica Ross and Traveon Taylor Sr. were granted a total of $2 million in compensatory damages, in addition to an extra $250,000 in punitive damages.
It was in September of 2023 that the couple filed the legal suit, in which they alleged that Gates had purposely posted photographs of their infant who had passed away to Instagram without obtaining permission.
He had been engaged to carry out an autopsy on the child, who had passed away while Ross was in the process of giving birth.
Within the context of the civil action that took place in March of 2024, it was determined that Gates and Medical Diagnostic Choices were responsible for the intentional infliction of mental distress, violation of privacy, and fraud.
“While we are pleased that a jury punished Dr. Jackson Gates for his reprehensible behavior, nothing can ease the pain that the parents, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor, Sr., have experienced in losing their baby boy in such a horrific way,” attorneys for the family stated.
According to Ross and Taylor’s lawsuit, their baby boy, Treveon Isaiah Taylor, Jr., was dead when he was born on July 10, 2023. Two days later, Ross paid $2,500 to Gates to do an autopsy on their kid.
In July 2023, Gates shared images and videos that showed “in graphic and grisly detail a postmortem examination of the decapitated, severed head of Baby Isaiah” and the infant’s body, according to the couple’s attorneys.
Ross and Taylor stated in the lawsuit that they did not consent to Gates distributing pictures from the autopsy.
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Gates claimed in March 2024 that he had not broken the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) since the legislation permits doctors to alert the public to safety issues in healthcare, despite the fact that his social media sites included videos of other autopsy.
“I have not violated HIPAA, it is not required by a physician to get consent to report a crime or some sort of health issue to the public,” Gates stated. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years, publishing my autopsy cases to explain to the public the victimization of those persons who have died.”
Additionally, Ross sued Southern Regional Medical Center in Clayton County, Georgia, where she gave birth in 2023, in a different case.
Ross claimed in that complaint that “Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr.’s decapitation and death” resulted from the staff’s carelessness during the delivery of her child.
According to those records, the baby’s shoulders failed to descend “because of shoulder dystocia,” which the Cleveland Clinic defines as a condition in which a baby’s shoulders or shoulder become trapped during vaginal delivery.
Attorneys then claimed that the hospital “failed to do a Cesarean section in a timely and proper manner” and that attending physician Dr. Tracey St. Julian “negligently applied excessive traction” on the baby’s head.
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The baby’s head was born vaginally, but the body and legs were removed during a second C-section procedure.
The infant, the couple’s first child, was born at full term. Additionally, Ross and Taylor stated that they were not informed of the decapitation until they were released from the hospital and that the personnel tried to dissuade them from having an autopsy.
In February 2024, the family’s lawyer claimed that the new parents were only able to view the infant via a glass pane when they requested to see and hold their newborn.
According to a family spokesperson, the infant’s head was “propped on top of his body” and carefully wrapped in a blanket to hide the fact that he had been decapitated.
According to Cory Lynch, the couple’s lawyer, “they were so excited about the birth of their first child.” “Unfortunately, Southern Regional Medical Center concealed the nightmare that had replaced their hopes and dreams.”
“Our deepest thoughts and prayers are with the family and all those impacted by this tragic event,” the Southern Regional Medical Center earlier said in a statement. The committed group of doctors, nurses, and staff at Southern Regional Medical Center who provided this patient’s treatment are also in our thoughts and prayers.
The infant’s death was declared a homicide by the Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office in 2024.
