“IF THE BABY DIES, WE’LL PAY FOR THE SURGERY”
- Justus A.S. Clayfield
- Aug 1, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 10, 2025
“If the baby dies, we’ll pay for the surgery, but if the baby doesn’t die, then we’re not paying for anything.” This is a quote from Tom Neumayer describing his experience with the birth of his fourth child Ezekiel. According to Tom and his wife, Kianna, these are the words of doctors who refused to take responsibility for malpractice during a C-Section surgery. During an exclusive interview released by Clayfield Productions, Tom Neumayer confirmed his hesitance to have another child after the death of twins in childbirth. However, due to his wife’s positive outlook, he changed his mind. This led to the joyous birth of their rowdy daughter Paisley but also to a life-changing decision.
“As a father, and a husband, it’s very degrading-” Said Tom while sitting across from me. “-when you can’t just be like ‘Of course, honey, let’s go out! Pick the house, whatever you want! Let’s go do it!’ Because I was so limited, I couldn’t do that for my wife and kids.”
Tom very aptly describes the modern struggle of the rapidly vanishing middle class, and why they were forced to make the difficult decision of sterilizing Kianna after the birth of their daughter Paisley.
“We decided not to have a kid because at the time we weren’t financially set to have any more than three.” Tom told me passionately. “We were barely scraping by trying to build a house!”
My introduction to the Neumayer family was vicarious and unexpected. It all started after a late night of editing which caused me to uncharacteristically sleep past 8 AM. I was surprised to be awoken by the sound of my phone buzzing with notifications. Very quickly, I scrambled to check, unsure if I had forgotten some important company appointment. I was even more surprised when I eventually spoke to Dave Schuman, who, at the time, was running for the position of Boundary County Sheriff. I had interviewed him in the previous weeks, so this call was welcome.
Immediately, he informed me of a situation developing within the community concerning Planning & Zoning that warranted my investigation. I did what little research I could before collecting my equipment to perform an onsite interview, and departed to meet with Dave Schuman. Together, we ventured to the Neumayer property though I was left to wonder why he didn’t accept transport from someone else considering that over thirty locals made an appearance after hearing about the troubles Tom’s parents (Jerry and Kathleen Neumayer) were facing. Nevertheless, we pressed on and it was here, after an extensive interview with Jerry and Kathleen, that I met Tom.
My first impression of Tom was limited by my busy schedule, but I urged myself to invite him for an interview in hopes of developing more context. He readily accepted, and it was during this interview that he described total medical negligence.
“We were going to have her tubes tied after we had Paisley.” Tom told me openly, referring to Kianna’s tubal ligation. “Well, the doctor decided that he was going to go on vacation halfway through surgery, and it was a C-Section.”
He went on to say they were completely unaware of this until another doctor arrived to take over the surgery.
“He was scheduled to leave in the middle of the surgery for vacation?” I asked in complete shock.
“We had no idea!” Tom simply responded. “So the doctor only tied one tube, left, [and] didn’t let the other doctor know that he only tied one tube. So he put everything back in, closed her up. Just pretty much, ‘Hey, she’s in there! Good luck.’ High five, walks by, goes on vacation. I don’t know.”
“So what was the result of that situation?” I wondered out loud, not even trying to ask a question.
“Well, we got pregnant again with Ezekiel, my youngest son, which caused a lot of complications because she only had one tube tied.” Tom said bluntly. “It caused a lot of restrictions and issues. We ended up having to go in, have the tube reversed and [the] tie undone. [We had to] go through the pregnancy [and] hope for the best. We tried to go after the doctor, and he’s like ‘Well, if the baby dies, we’ll pay for the surgery, but if the baby doesn’t die, then we’re not paying for anything.’ [We responded that] this was crooked. We trusted [them] to help us out here!”
Isn’t that the case with anyone who engages the help of medical services? There is an implicit trust put in medical professionals to guarantee the health and safety of their patients. However, everyone who works within the medical industry still remains to be human.
“We’re humans, we’re bound to make mistakes.” Dave Schuman had told me during his standalone interview. He’s correct, but the story that Tom & Kianna graciously shared with me was not a matter of human error but of human negligence.
The events concerning the Neumayer’s have generated over 100,000 views of awareness through Clayfield. Over 30,000 of these views come from Tom’s shortened version of this story which goes to show the strong impression this narrative leaves. The Neumayer family are reputable for being honest, hard-working people. Even those who have contacted me anonymously confirm this despite their disagreements. In every social media post I’ve made concerning this family, many people have commented sharing their fondness of the Neumayer’s. One user commented on YouTube, saying;
“I have known the Neumayer family for many years. Hard working family that have helped me out many times! Great family… and good people.” Another on Facebook said; “This family, the Neumayer's, have been in this county for over 100 years! [They] helped build it to a prosperous community. They deserve the utmost respect and support we can show them!”
The people of Boundary County seem to collectively support the Neumayer’s. This was manifested on May 9th when over thirty local residents showed their support by personally congregating in Jerry Neumayer’s defense. Keeping this in mind, the validity of Tom & Kianna’s story is strengthened by their integrity within the community. It’s not far-fetched to believe their story considering their overwhelming support from Boundary County.
There are some who have voiced opposing opinions such as one internet user who suggested; “Something was wrong. To be legally safe they gave an innocuous reason to you. Maybe he was dealing with death and suddenly was overcome. Maybe he had a heart attack and left the room before you could notice, maybe he was removed because of being incapacitated? You'll never know.”
This is exactly the point; Tom and Kianna Neumayer will never know. They’ll never know what transpired during Paisley’s pregnancy leading to the many complications surrounding Ezekiel’s birth. Regardless of whether the doctor on duty abandoned the surgery for vacation or a genuine emergency occurred, Kianna Neumayer and her son still suffered nonetheless. Tom himself has confirmed that despite being a happy, healthy boy, Ezekiel still has health issues resulting from this medical ineptitude.
“Don’t get me wrong, yes, we didn’t plan to have a fourth child, but he is amazing!” Tom laughed with a smile. “He is absolutely adorable! We love him just as if we would have planned it. My oldest son [Nicholas] is best friends with him. They play together all the time. They have so much fun together, but that was rough. That put a dampener on building our house and doing just about anything.”
When I called Kianna Neumayer on July 20th for further public comment, she politely declined. In a segment deleted from the public interview due to poor audio, Kianna did have something to say when asked about the hardest part of this experience.
“Seeing different doctors every day.” Kianna said strongly in unreleased footage. “They were on rotation, so every day, [we’d] see a different doctor, and they all had different opinions. They couldn’t give [us] a release date. They couldn’t tell [us] what was going on. They could only tell [us] the bare minimum.”
“God bless my wife, she has always stayed positive.” Tom said lovingly of his partner. “No matter living in a camper, or shed, just trying to survive staying out of the cold, having a roof over our head, and food in our belly. She was always positive through it. I’d beat up on myself, and she was always there to cheer me up.”
I interviewed Tom Neumayer on May 10th, and again with his family on Saturday, the 18th. The most admirable thing I noticed was the family’s unwavering happiness in the face of uncertain hardships. Even after enduring excessive complications, Tom and Kianna have managed to support a homeschooled education for their children in addition to maintaining high spirits. My interactions with Nicholas, Paisley, and Ezekiel confirmed this, as they all expressed great exuberance. I’m sad to say that, according to Tom in his interview, there is no happy ending to this story.
“A lawyer came to my wife in the hospital and said, ‘I heard about your situation. I want to help you make this right.’ He was supposed to be helping us through all of this stuff.” Tom began as he described even more difficulties. “Well, he procrastinated and pushed it out; didn’t answer our calls, didn’t help us out. Apparently, there’s an end date for that stuff. As soon as you get to that end date, they drop the whole lawsuit. So we didn’t get anything!”
“What do you have to say to your kids, and to your wife?” I had asked him when our interview was coming to a close. His answer later brought tears to my eyes.
“I love [all of] you very much!” He started with a bright-eyed chuckle. “I know that I’ve been hard to deal with lately. I know I’ve been negative, and thank you guys for keeping your spirits up and constantly reminding me of what a family is. I can’t thank you [all] enough, you’ve always been there for me. I hope I can show you guys the same in your future.” Tom ended with one last nervous chuckle. “I love you guys very much.”
It was heartwarming that no matter life’s challenges, this family grew strong together rather than falling apart. Tom and Kianna still reside in Boundary County with their four children, Nicholas, Jacob, Paisley, and Ezekiel. At this time, they have no public comment, but are happy for people to watch their interview to find more information, which you can find on Clayfield’s YouTube channel. I’m incredibly grateful for the time the Neumayer family has shared with me. Everyone at Clayfield wishes them the best of luck moving forward in their personal growth.
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Candidly,
JUSTUS AS. CLAYFIELD
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