Jessica Ross and Treveon Taylor Sr. filed a lawsuit against a pathologist who posted footage of their son’s decapitated body on Instagram, and the couple has now been awarded millions
The parents of a baby who was decapitated during childbirth have been awarded $2.25million after a doctor posted graphic footage of their son’s autopsy on social media.
Jessica Ross was due to give birth to her first child on July 10, 2023, but the baby got stuck behind her pelvic bone after being in labour for hours. Ms Ross and her partner Treveon Taylor Sr. did not get to see their son (whom they named Treveon Isaiah Taylor Jr) and doctors and nurses did not tell them the child’s head had been severed during efforts to deliver him, according to court documents. The couple then hired a pathologist to carry out an autopsy – but he posted a graphic video of the child’s body online.
Ms Ross hired pathologist Dr. Jackson Gates after a funeral home told the couple about the condition of his body. Gates posted a video of the child’s dead body on his Instagram showing “graphic and grisly detail of postmortem examination” and his “decapitated, severed head”, according to the couple’s lawyers.
The pathologist deleted this video but posted two more of the autopsy just a few days later and all of these videos were uploaded without the couple’s consent, according to their complaint. A lawyer for the couple, Cory Lynch, told Fox 5 Atlanta: “For him to post these images and videos without permission was insane to us.
“And especially with the nature of the posts… of the grisly details of the autopsy examination and also pictures of the child’s head. It was baffling that he would do something like that.”
Ms Ross and Mr Taylor filed a lawsuit in September 2023 against Dr. Gates and Gates Rapid Diagnostic Laboratory of Atlanta. Dr. Gates did not respond to the lawsuit so this left the State Court in Fulton County, Georgia, to decide.
Dr. Gates’ lawyer Ira Livnat, who was hired after the court’s decision, claimed this meant the case ended in favour of the couple, saying: “The plaintiffs got the absolute best case.” The jury, on Wednesday, awarded Ms Ross and Mr Taylor $2.25million (£1.6million).
The couple’s attorney in a statement said: “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.”
“After the decapitation of their baby, Gates poured salt into the couple’s already deep wounds when he betrayed them.
“This young couple trusted him with the remains of their precious baby. Gates, in turn, repaid this trust by posting horrific images of their child for the world to see.”
Dr. Gates’ attorney said he “deeply, deeply regrets any harm” but in a Facebook post, that has since been deleted, the pathologist called the outcome “a complete miscarriage of justice” adding that he intended to file an appeal. Gates said he still pots autopsies on social media, according to Atlanta News First.