Couple suing Emory University Hospital over death of unborn child

ATLANTA — A Fulton County couple is suing Emory University Hospital Midtown and Emory University Healthcare claiming that a lack of treatment at the hospital led to the death of their unborn son.

Crystal Bealing and Joshua McCreary filed the lawsuit in Fulton County court on Aug. 22, accusing Emory Healthcare staff failed to provide medical treatment to Bealing, who at the time was 38 weeks pregnant.

On Aug. 22, 2022, Bealing and McCreary say in their court filing that they’d gone to a prenatal medical exam performed by an Emory doctor, who said that both “Bealing and the baby were fine” at the end of the exam.

Following the exam, Bealing went home and went to bed to rest.

That evening, the lawsuit says she woke up and took a shower, when she started to “feel sharp contractions in her stomach which caused her so much pain she was unable to stand properly.”

After “crawling” out of the bathroom and calling for her godfather for help, he helped her get dressed and called McCreary.

Bealing’s lawsuit says she then got on the couch in the living room, still in “excruciating pain” and noticed she was bleeding heavily, which “increased her feeling that she needed immediate emergency medical attention.”

Bealing and McCreary arrived at Emory Midtown Hospital around 9:30 p.m., with the lawsuit saying they immediately went to the emergency room for treatment. Bealing says she was having trouble breathing and was in severe, consistent pain in her stomach area.

At the hospital, the lawsuit says “The stomach pain was so severe Mrs. Bealing was unable to walk or sit in an upright position.” and that she continued to bleed heavily while also feeling like she would vomit. Bealing and McCreary claim that because she was pregnant and had “specific conditions which deserved immediate medical attention,” she expected to immediately receive treatment or examination by Emory staff, even requesting it.

Instead, the couple says in the lawsuit that they were “completely ignored” by hospital staff before being asked to fill out an intake form 20 minutes later. The form contained what Bealing said was a “voluntary agreement to alternative dispute resolution,” which Bealing refused to sign, according to the court document.

While waiting for treatment, Bealing continually ignored, according to the lawsuit, even while she continued to bleed from her lower regions and vomited twice in view of hospital staff.

Eventually, the lawsuit claims a staff member brought over a wheelchair to take Bealing to the Maternity ER, where “she was placed along a hallway against a wall,” and did not receive treatment because a staff member said there was a “shift change of the employees” and no beds available for her. After seeing new staff come into the maternity waiting area, Bealing’s lawsuit says they “failed to offer any treatment, examination, aid or evaluations.”

Bealing’s lawsuit claims that before going to the hospital, she had been able to feel her unborn child kicking, but while waiting for treatment at the Emory Hospital in Midtown, she felt the kicking suddenly stop.

The court record says the continuing bleeding and pain, combined with the lack of treatment and sudden stopping of her unborn child’s kicking, Bealing asked McCreary to take her to another hospital.

Two hours after leaving Emory Midtown and arriving at Piedmont Hospital, Bealing was treated immediately and taken to the hospital’s Maternity Emergency Unit. In the early hours of the following morning, Piedmont staff announced that Bealing’s son had passed while she was undergoing treatment.

Bealing said in the lawsuit that her unborn child died of a placental abruption, or a premature separation of the placenta from the uterine wall.

Eventually, Bealing had her unborn son removed from her womb via induced delivery and the baby, who the parents chose to name Carmelo Arthur McCreary-Bealing, was born dead, according to the lawsuit, on Aug. 24, 2022. Five days later, Bealing and McCreary cremated their child.

As a result of their experience at Emory, Bealing and McCreary are suing the hospital and healthcare system for claims of gross negligence, negligence and vicarious liability, accusing them of failing to exercise a standard of care or skill expected under the conditions of what the couple and their unborn child were going through.

Along with the lawsuit, Bealing and McCreary included an affidavit from Dr. Shoal P. Pittman, an OB/GYN working for Kaiser Permanente. Pittman’s affidavit is focused on a post-treatment review of Bealing by Emory University Hospital, Piedmont Hospital and Emory Women’s Center at Saint Joseph’s Hospital.

“There is no record of any care or treatment being provided to Crystal Bealing by any qualified healthcare provider throughout her time as a patient at Emory University Midtown Hospital,” Pittman wrote in her affidavit. “There is also no record that Crystal Bealing was ever advised to remain and wait for treatment. Emory University Midtown Hospital’s doctors and staff failed to recognize, evaluate, and treat Crystal Bealing’s obstetric hemorrhage and placental abruption, leading to her injuries and the death of her unborn son.”

Multiple unnamed defendants are listed as additional parties accused of taking part in the alleged medical malpractice.

Bealing and McCreary are demanding a jury trial and compensatory damages in excess of $10,000 per defendant.

An Emory spokeswoman said “Emory Healthcare is committed to providing high-quality, compassionate care to our patients, their families and our community. Because of federal privacy laws, we are unable to comment on any specific patient’s care. We also do not comment on pending litigation.”