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A grieving family will receive $2.25 million after a Georgia judge ruled a metro Atlanta-based pathologist violated their privacy by posting autopsy photos of their decapitated baby on social media.
A Fulton County jury on Wednesday found Dr. Jackson Gates and his company, Gates Rapid Diagnostic Laboratory of Atlanta, owed the baby’s parents $2 million in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages—the legal maximum, according to a report from affiliate FOX 5 Atlanta.
The baby’s young mother, Jessica Ross, experienced a complication known as shoulder dystocia during her delivery on July 9, leading to a rushed Cesarean section.
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The couple, Jessica Ross and Treveon Taylor Sr., later filed a lawsuit against Southern Regional Medical Center and the OBGYN, claiming the doctor pulled on the baby’s head and neck so hard that the bones in his skull, face and neck were broken.
While doctors delivered the baby’s body and legs during the procedure, his head remained in the vaginal canal.
Attorneys claimed the nurses and medical staff at the hospital lied to the couple about what occurred during labor, discouraged them from getting an autopsy, encouraged them to cremate the baby’s body, and did not report the death to the medical examiner.
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As part of the parents’ search for answers, they hired Gates to perform a private autopsy. Weeks after the tragedy, Gates allegedly shared photos and videos of the child’s full-face and internal organs on Instagram without the couple’s consent.
“My baby was on Instagram,” Ross said in an interview with FOX 5. “Dr. Gates posted pictures of my baby.”
The lawsuit against Gates, which was filed in September 2023, alleged he reposted the photos after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the family, requiring him to remove the videos from his account.
Gates claimed he did not include the child’s identity and the posts were for educational purposes, according to the report.
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“While we are pleased that a jury punished Dr. Jackson Gates for his reprehensible behavior, nothing can ease the pain that the parents… have experienced in losing their baby boy in such a horrific way,” the couple’s attorneys wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Our goal was to ensure that Gates was held accountable for his unconscionable lack of empathy and invasion of our clients’ privacy.”
The Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the child’s death a homicide earlier this year, according to the report. The case against the hospital and physician who delivered the baby has not yet been tried in court.
Southern Regional Medical Center did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Gates’ attorneys could not immediately be reached by Fox News Digital for comment.
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