The Georgia parents whose child died from decapitation during birth have won a multimillion-dollar civil suit against a doctor who published the infant’s autopsy online.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr. lost their child on July 19, 2023, while at Southern Regional Medical Center in Atlanta.
As Ross labored, the baby’s shoulders reportedly became lodged against her pelvic bone, and the medical team’s attempts to extract the baby allegedly resulted in decapitation.
Ross and Taylor hired Dr. Jackson Gates to perform an autopsy, which he did and then documented on Instagram.
The parents, who claim they did not give Gates permission to post their child’s autopsy on social media, have filed a lawsuit alleging invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud.
According to Fulton County court records, a jury determined after a trial that Gates owes Ross and Taylor millions of dollars.
“We the Jury find that, for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, Invasion of Privacy Through Intrusion into Private Affairs, and Fraud[,] Defendants Jackson L. Gates M.D. and Gates Rapid Diagnostic Laboratory of Atlanta, d/b/a Medical Diagnostic Choices will pay $2,000,000 in compensatory damages to Jessica Ross and Traveon Isaiah Taylor, Sr.,” according to the verdict form issued on Wednesday.
The jury awarded an additional $250,000 in punitive damages, according to records, which is the maximum amount allowed, according to the family’s lawyers.
“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 couple said in a statement, according to local NBC affiliate WXIA.
“After decapitating their baby, Gates betrayed the couple, adding salt to their already deep wounds. This young couple entrusted him with their precious baby’s remains. Gates, in turn, repaid this trust by posting graphic images of their child for all to see.”
In March 2024, the grieving parents obtained a default judgment against the doctor.
The child’s death was ruled homicide. Ross and Taylor are currently suing Prime Healthcare Services, the hospital where they gave birth, as well as the delivery doctor and nurses.
The couple claims that the doctor used “ridiculously excessive force” on the baby’s head and neck before performing an emergency C-section, and that the medical team withheld information about the baby’s death for several days.
