Hospital Sued for Baby Found in Trash

The New Mexico hospital where a high school cheerleader secretly gave birth and then put her newborn in the trash is being sued for wrongful death.

Alexee Trevizo gave birth in a bathroom at Artesia General Hospital on Jan. 27, 2023, approximately two hours after arriving to the emergency room and complaining of back pain.

The newborn’s body was discovered in the trash a short time later, according to a copy of the arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, at which point Trevizo said she gave birth during the 17 minutes she was in the bathroom but that the baby was stillborn.

Four months later, Trevizo was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after an autopsy determined that the child — posthumously named Alex Ray Fierro — had been breathing outside the womb.

The lawyer representing Trevizo is not only defending his client against the charge, but has also filed a wrongful death complaint in civil court on behalf of the deceased baby’s estate, seeking damages from the hospital, Trevizo’s attending physician Dr. Heather Marshall Vaskas and emergency room staff members who attended to the teenager.

Trevizo told staff that she was not pregnant and “on her period” upon arriving at the hospital,  according to a copy of the civil complaint obtained by PEOPLE.

The doctor on duty then ordered medications that, the complaint alleges, “have warnings regarding use if the patient is pregnant.”

Meanwhile, a test run by hospital staff revealed Trevizo was pregnant, but, per the complaint, Trevizo had not yet learned this when she told a nurse she had to use the bathroom.

A timeline of that bathroom trip is included in the arrest affidavit, which states that Trevizo first entered the bathroom at 1:39 a.m. and remained there for 18 minutes, leaving only when hospital staff threatened to open the door.

As Trevizo returned to her hospital room to receive an ultrasound, a member of the cleaning crew was called to the bathroom, where they found a “large amount of blood,” per the arrest affidavit.

When the cleaner went to take out the trash, she thought it was much heavier than usual, and when she looked inside found a trash bag tied-up underneath other trash.

The housekeeper then saw what she thought was a baby and immediately called in two nurses, according to the affidavit.

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Per an amicus brief filed by the state of New Mexico, staff called police and Dr. Vaskas addressed the situation with Trevizo, saying: “We discovered a dead baby in the bathroom.” Trevizo then allegedly said, “I’m sorry, it came out of me, I didn’t know what to do.”

The nurse informed Trevizo and her mother that the baby appeared to be full term, per the amicus brief, prompting Trevizo to allegedly exclaim: “Nothing was crying.”

On questioning from her mother, per the amicus brief, Trevizo allegedly admitted that she placed the newborn in “the trash bag.”

Trevizo was allowed to go home and continue with her school year until the autopsy report came back stating that the child had air in his lungs and that there was evidence of a hemorrhage consistent with hypoxia.

The high school senior was arrested on May 10, 2023 and charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. Trevizo entered a plea of not guilty to both charges and was released pretrial, attending her prom but not her high school graduation ceremony.

The district’s attorney’s case relies on the alleged confession Trevizo made as well as surveillance video inside the hospital showing her enter and exit the bathroom.

New Mexico’s Fifth Judicial District Court ruled, just before trial, that Trevizo’s alleged confession and all video of her inside the hospital would not be admissible at trial because it was protected under doctor-patient privilege.

Lawyers for the state challenged that ruling in an amicus brief filed with the New Mexico Supreme Court, who just heard arguments in the case last week.

Trevizo’s murder trial is on hold while lawyers for both sides await the Supreme Court’s ruling, while the wrongful death suit is currently on track to head to trial sometime next year.