Florissant, MO – Arteisha Betts and Travis Ammonette claim their son died after birth when the doctor separated the newborn’s head from his neck. The Missouri couple claims the obstetrician decapitated the baby, shoved the boy’s body back inside the mother, and then performed an emergency C-section to hide the deadly mistake.

According to the lawsuit, the couple claims that the OB-GYN refused to perform the planned C-section and detached the newborn’s spine while attempting to yank him from the birth canal, the New York Daily News reports. The 10-count complaint filed in the St. Louis County Circuit Court maintains the doctors wrongly pressured them into having a vaginal delivery, Courthouse News Service reports.

During an appointment with Dr. Susan Moore, the physician allegedly told Arteisha and Travis that the baby boy would need to be delivered via caesarian section because his abdomen was too large for a normal vaginal birth. Betts went into labor at just 28 weeks into a typical 40-week pregnancy.

St. John’s Mercy Medical Center’s Dr. Gilbert Webb, allegedly refused to go ahead with the planned C-section and would only agree to deliver the baby by way of attempted trial of a vaginal birth. Dr. Webb also allegedly refused to permit the couple to go to another hospital, and Betts eventually agreed to try a vaginal delivery under protest and duress, according to lawsuit excerpts.

During Kaden Travis Ammonette’s delivery, his head became breached and the rest of his body became stuck inside the birth canal. Dr. Webb is accused of applying traction to the baby’s head to pull the newborn loose, and separated the boy’s head from his cervical spine in the process. The parents reported seeing blood shoot out from their baby’s neck.

The St. John’s Mercy Medical Center doctor reportedly pushed the newborn’s head back inside the birth canal and initiated an emergency cesarean section. Betts claims the procedure occurred so quickly Dr. Webb was slicing into her body before the anesthesia had kicked in.

According to the lawsuit, Dr. Webb surgically and completely removed the newborn’s head from his body during the emergency delivery. The lawsuit names Moore, Webb, Signature Medical Group, and Midwest Maternal & Fetal Services as defendants. The hospital is not named in the lawsuit. The couple is seeking unspecified damages based upon wrongful death and negligence accusations.