In 2015, hospital staff didn’t just refuse to save my 23-week preemie. They killed him.

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On October 23, 2015, I was admitted to a Florida hospital for preterm labor with my son. At that time, I was already dilated eight centimeters with a bulging amniotic sac.

I had to demand medicine to stop my contractions, as hospital staff originally said there was nothing they could try — but I knew that wasn’t true. I was then transferred to a labor and delivery room and the doctor followed, asking the nurse in my room to get me an IV for my hyperemesis gravidarum-related nausea; I was violently vomiting, which could have broken my waters.

Soon after the doctor left the room, I felt sick and asked the nurse to hurry and administer the medicine, as they helped instantly most of the time — but she scoffed and said I’d be okay waiting… after all, women who are full term in labor get sick all the time without breaking their waters.

My only other option was to yell for help — but soon as I opened my mouth, I vomited, and my water broke.

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That nurse was removed from caring for me, and staff performed an ultrasound. It appeared that everything was still good — he had plenty of fluid, still no infections on test results either. So the plan was for me to try to stay pregnant as long as possible since I was only 22 weeks, 6 days.

But eventually, the NICU team told us there was nothing they could do until I reached 24-25 weeks… but if I could make it to 23, they’d at least try to help our son — which was just hours away. However, they also said if I could find somewhere else willing and able to try to help, they would transfer me.

We called around and found a hospital that was willing to try to save babies starting at 21 weeks gestation, but when we told the hospital staff about the other facility willing to take us, they laughed and said they weren’t going to waste their time and resources taking me. Then we attempted to leave against medical advice (AMA), but they claimed there was no such thing.

Hospital staff refused to allow my discharge when my son and I were both stable, not even to allow my boyfriend to drive me or even go by cab. They fought us, so we called police for help — and that made it so much worse.

The police sided with hospital staff, and wouldn’t let us leave — they even threatened to “pink slip” me, meaning they would say I wasn’t in the right mind to make decisions for myself or my baby. Staff threatened to take me back for a C-section to get it over with and arrest my boyfriend if we didn’t stop trying to transfer or begging them to try to help our son when he was born.

So we had to stop, and simply hope that we could get through the night until my in-laws could get to us to help.

Sadly, I woke up and felt my son’s feet kicking outside my cervix, and hospital staff again claimed he had to be born, even though there were no signs of infection or distress for either of us.

My son was coming out feet first, with no drugs administered to either induce labor or ease my pain. But I knew they weren’t going to try to save him, despite saying they would if I made it to 23 weeks. I was screaming from both physical and emotional pain, and a doctor popped her head into my room, yelling at me to shut up because I was scaring the mothers in labor (as if I wasn’t one myself). I yelled back at her to get out, and that really upset her. She came all the way into the room then, closing the door while putting on gloves. She walked over, pushed the delivering doctor out of her way, and shoved her arm up inside of me while I was yelling, “Stop! No, don’t!”

It was then that she grabbed my son Ezekiel by his leg… and yanked.

We all heard the snap.

All that was left to be born were his shoulders and head. She then yanked again as everyone in the room yelled at her to stop — and he fell limp and was born.

They weighed him and put him on my chest, refusing to try to help him, saying he was too small and weak. But despite the injuries this doctor caused him — and with no help from the NICU team — he fought to stay alive for six hours all on his own before passing away in our arms.

Aaron Ezekiel Johnston Jr. Born alive and denied life. 23w0d 1lb 2oz Oct 24, 2015 forever 6hours old

One doctor wrote in my records that Ezekiel was 22 weeks and stillborn. Another claimed he was 21 weeks and lived for only two hours after birth — and that doctor is now unable to be located.

We tried to get help to sue for justice for our son, for me, and for our family after suffering the loss of our precious Aaron Ezekiel. But we were told there was nothing we could do; he wouldn’t be considered a human in a court’s eyes, since he wasn’t 24 weeks, which was the state’s cutoff for viability (meaning when they begin to see them as humans) — despite having video proof of him gasping for air, and despite our possession of both his birth and death certificates.

A little while after losing him, I found the hospital’s Facebook page, where they were boasting about a previous 23-weeker weighing 1lb 2oz — just like our son — whom they had saved. That 23-weeker was now turning 10 years old and they had saved her. They also claimed to have saved another preemie just a few weeks before Ezekiel’s birth, explaining how they upgraded their NICU level to level 3 and had 12 new beds ready to be used!

Then I found a group for parents of babies who were in that hospital’s NICU and found even more babies saved by the hospital when born either at 23 weeks or weighing 1lb. 2oz or less. Then when I got pregnant with our rainbow daughter, my mother-in-law and I met even more 23-weekers who were saved by the same hospital.

About a year or so later, I learned this hospital had transferred another mother who wasn’t even 22 weeks yet to the exact same hospital we found that had been willing to help us during my labor with Ezekiel. The hospital knew, and lied about both their inability to transfer me and their supposed inability to try to save our son.

No justice will ever be served, as sadly, I cannot locate the doctor who assaulted Ezekiel, despite having her name and state physician ID number on his death certificate.

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