Guide to Informed Choices
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died after preparations for a second trimester abortion. Chen was estimated at 16 weeks along when abortionist Andrew Rutland began the procedure. Rutland gave an injection of Demerol and lidocaine. According to Medical Board documents, shortly after receiving the paracervical block (yes, this is the harmless procedure many clinics mention) she began to have a reaction and her heart stopped. Staff attempted to provide CPR and called 911. Emergency crew arrived on the scene to find no one attending to her. They attempted to bring her back to life but were unsuccessful, and she officially died 6 days later in hospital. An autopsy showed toxicity from lidocaine. This may be considered an unavoidable tragedy, yet on the other hand, Medical Board accusations include not calling emergency crew soon enough, not having current CPR certification, lacking qualified staffing for a possible emergency, and not recognizing lidocaine toxicity or safe levels. 812
Board Documents)
2008 a good year – no deaths that I‘m aware of (having said that, I didn‘t learn of the 2009 death till 2010).
2007 Erica Goode, age 21 When Erica
visited Planned
Parenthood‘s Riverside facility at
California, a nurse prepared her for her second trimester abortion by inserting laminaria to prepare her cervix. Erica was scheduled to return the following day for the rest of the procedure: however, she began experiencing fevers, vomiting and acting very strangely. Erica became mentally unstable and her mother, not aware of the ongoing abortion, checked her into hospital. The hospital was not aware of the abortion and Erica, confused and not in her right mind, refused a gynecological exam. She was sent back and forth from the medical to psych ward and back until they discovered too late that her laminaria had been inserted way too long — 13 days instead of 1. Erica miscarried the fetus and died the following day. The coroner's office listed the causes of her death as toxic shock syndrome, prolonged retention of laminaria cervical dilators and intrauterine pregnancy. You wouldn‘t expect to die of something as simple as a little infection, but it sometimes happens. 813
(Source: WorldNetDaily, Orange County Register)
2006 Names Unknown Wherever specific information was not available, such as for 2006, I have posted general data instead of an example of a
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personal story. For example, for 2006 I have no details but I did find out that the FDA released a public health advisory regarding two deaths from the abortion pill. 814
(Source: Food and Drug Administration)
Oriane seemed the picture of success when she had her abortion. A California lawyer with a family of her own, her abortion at Eve Surgical Center was meant to be uneventful. Being early in her pregnancy she opted for a non-surgical abortion using with RU486. Three days after taking the medication she began to experience heavy bleeding and severe pain. Although this method is intended to cause bleeding — kind of like a ‗natural‘ miscarriage — it was not going the way it should have. Oriane was taken by ambulance to hospital where she was diagnosed with metabolic acidosis (an acidic condition in the body — not good) and sepsis (which is blood poisoning). She died in the emergency room. What a sad ending to a life of so much promise. The cause of her infection was likely a rare form of bacteria, often associated with this pill, Clostridium sordellii. Knowing such facts, however, would be little comfort for her two motherless children, age 3 and 4 years old. May she rest in peace. 815
Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, Ladies‘ Home Journal )
2004, Holly Patterson, age 18 "Don't give up! We love you, Holly!" These may have been the last words Holly heard as her life slipped away in the emergency room. Her swift death came as a total shock. It was only that afternoon that her father, unaware that she was even pregnant, had been telephoned by the hospital and told to come quickly. Seven weeks pregnant, Holly had decided on an abortion and the abortion pill as the method of choice. Yet something went wrong, terribly wrong. It hadn‘t seemed like the end just three days earlier when her father found her crying on her bed. She said it was just a painful period cramp. Records show that she had called the clinic hotline a day earlier and they had simply told her to take a pain killer. When she called a second time, the clinic said she could go to ER if the pain continued. Sure, the procedure was going to hurt, but not this much — she couldn‘t even walk! Incredibly, the hospital also sent her home with pain killers! The next afternoon she was dead. The attending physician informed the father that retained fetal parts had become infected and later it was determined that Holly was yet another victim of the Clostridium sordellii bacteria
.
She was a beautiful girl, a blond, blue-eyed beauty, and she will be dearly missed. 816
(Source: Ladies‘ Home Journal, National Review Online)
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2003 Leigh Ann Stephens Alford, age 34 On November 25, 2003 Leigh Ann died at the hands of the same abortionist who was convicted of killing his wife (see Reason #72 ). Yet Malachy De Henre probably didn‘t intend to kill his patient when he accidentally perforated her uterus. Leigh Ann, a resident from Alabama, was sent home only 20 minutes after her surgical abortion at the Summit Medical Center. Less than 6 hours later she felt not well, and her husband called the clinic reporting symptoms of abdominal pain and low temperature. Eighteen hours later she was dead. What had gone wrong? The abortionist had accidentally punctured a hole in her uterus, and didn‘t realize it. Though the exact details of her last hours are unknown, she probably died of hemorrhagic shock, which can happen with internal bleeding such as hers. 817
(Source: The Clarion-Ledger, RealChoice)
2002, Diana Lopez, age 25 When Diana Lopez went to abortionist Mark Maltzer for her 18-week abortion she couldn‘t have imagined the outcome. During the abortion her cervix was punctured and she experienced severe bleeding. She was rushed to hospital, where she was given blood transfusions and an emergency hysterectomy. It was not enough to save her life. While some might even argue that her death was an unfortunate accident, the attitude of the abortionist was reprehensible. He didn‘t accompany his patient to the hospital; he didn‘t communicate with staff at the hospital; he didn‘t console her remaining family; he didn‘t even report the death on time; and tried to make out that it wasn‘t really him who had done the abortion! (Source: SignOnSanDiego, RealChoice, San Francisco Faith)
2001 Names Unknown I found no detailed stories of deaths for this year, so instead I report that the government‘s Centers for Disease Control reported that they are aware of 6 deaths. These figures come from voluntary reporting by abortion clinics so do not likely show the full story. 818
(Source: Centers for Disease Control)
2000 Kimberly K. Neil, age unknown When Kimberly Neil went to the Family Planning Associates Medical Group in California for her abortion, she couldn‘t have known that she would never come out of that place — conscious, that is. Her family‘s lawsuit claims abortionist Kenneth Wright caused her ―wrongful death,‖ through negligence to properly monitor and treat her after she went into cardiac arrest during her abortion. It was then that she slipped into a coma from which she never recovered. She died 17 days later. It is
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not a surprise that such accidents can happen when you consider that a clinic is not the same as the hospital, in terms of technology, nor does the abortionist have an array of staff waiting on him hand and foot. 819
(Source: The Fresno Bee)
1999 Names Unknown Four deaths counted from the Centers for Disease Control for 1999. 820
Centers for Disease Control )
1998 Lou Ann Herron, age 33 As a clinic worker took the witness stand following the death of patient Lou Ann, she told how the abortionist whom she worked for repeated the ultrasound until he got an earlier fetal age which would not require justification for a woman‘s health. The worker told how the clinic ―conveniently lost‖ the ultrasound records which indicated a viable fetus, a claim the abortionist himself denies. Clinic assistants testified that as Lou Ann lay in recovery she became very scared and begged to know what was wrong with her. Poor thing, she was bleeding to death from a uterine tear. The abortionist left and was later paged by staff when Lou Ann continued to deteriorate. The abortionist did not return to tend to her — instead he told them to call 911. By the time emergency staff arrived she had lost 2-3 liters of blood, had been in ‗recovery‘ for three long hours and was dead. The doctor present in the emergency room testified that Lou Ann would not have died if the abortionist had recognized the severity of her condition, a mere 16 minutes after the abortion. My heart goes out to her and her family.
821
(Source: RealChoice, The
Arizona Republic)
1997 Nicole Williams, age 22 You tend to think of later abortions as more risky, and they generally are, but early abortions can be risky too. Nicole, a mother of three who lived with her boyfriend, went to the Reproductive Health Services in St Louis for an early abortion. Her abortionist was Robert
Crist, incidentally, the same man responsible for the death of Latachie Veal (1991). As preparation for the procedure she was given Lidocaine as a local anesthetic and Vasopressin, an anti-bleeding drug. Five minutes later just as the abortionist was finishing up her suction abortion he noticed Nicole‘s breathing was funny. Someone called 911 and the closest ambulance arrived
in 15
minutes. Meanwhile, clinic staff
attempted resuscitation and gave her oxygen. When the ambulance crew arrived they found Nicole in cardiac arrest but worked on her, then took her to hospital where they
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worked on her some more. Nicole did not recover and was pronounced dead at 3:12 pm. What triggered this in the first place? A transcript of the phone conversation with emergency services shows
a clinic
employee saying, ―I have a patient who is having difficulty breathing from a drug reaction.‖ What a pity for this promising young mom to have it all end like this. Nicole leaves behind three youngsters, ages 1, 3 and 7. Who will look after them now? 822
(Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
A young black mother on Medi-cal, Sharon went to A Lady's Choice in California for her 20-week abortion. After the abortion Sharon was pale, shaky and vomiting. She told the nurse assistant that ―there's blood in my vomit!" but the assistant told her it was just bile. This happened twice and the assistants were not alarmed, as a lot of women apparently vomit afterwards. However, the assistant ―asked Sharon if she was in pain and she said she was. I asked her if she was a little or a lot or sort of in between. She said a lot.‖ There was some talk of getting her pain medications but it never happened. The clinic was in a hurry to close up that day as the abortionist was flying home and an employee wanted to pack for her two- week vacation. So two employees helped sickly Sharon into a wheelchair and took her out to her mother‘s car. Sharon died on the way home in the back seat of her mom‘s car. No one even knew she was dead. She just seemed really tired. When Sharon didn‘t wake up the ambulance was called, but Sharon was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. A medical assistant, Vicki, testifies that a week earlier the clinic owner had mentioned in a staff meeting that if the abortionist, Bruce Steir, did not slow down the referral doctor was going to quit taking patients with perforations. As an example of how many abortions he was cramming in, the day Sharon died Steir had completed 18 abortions. Sharon‘s autopsy shows that she died of internal hemorrhage caused by a perforation. 823
(Source: San Diego News Notes)
1995 Carolina Gutierrez, age 21 Carolina was a married mother of two when she underwent a first trimester abortion at the Maber Medical Center in Miami, Florida. 824 Following that abortion she developed a fever and The Miami Herald writes, ―For the next two days the clinic shunned her repeated calls for relief from her fever and pain, her family's lawyer alleges.‖ 825
As Carolina got worse and the clinic failed to answer the phone, her family called 911. At hospital Carolina bravely fought the gangrene that was taking over her body. It likely originated in
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her uterus, which had been punctured twice during the abortion. A hysterectomy failed to stave off the blood poisoning and, with infection spreading, her legs were later amputated in an attempt to save her life. 826
Sadly that failed also. The Miami Herald ironically reports that the only information sheet she was given was in English and Carolina could not speak English. The patient form was likewise unsigned. 827
1994 Magdalena Ortega Rodriguez, age 23 Magdalena thought she was in her second trimester when she went for an abortion at the now closed Californian, El Norte Clinica
Medica. 828
During
Magdalena‘s abortion the abortionist, Suresh Gandotra, realized he had ―screwed up‖ because he was having trouble getting the fetus out, had accidentally perforated her uterus and also pulled out parts of her bowel. He called the hospital wanting directions by car, but the hospital instructed him to call an ambulance… which he did — after ½ hour…and in the meantime he continued performing abortions. The abortionist didn‘t even bother to send her medical history along to the hospital, nor did he tell the emergency services that staff at a particular hospital (not the one she got sent too) were waiting for her. When Magdalena arrived at hospital she was not responsive, had fixed pupils and no vital signs. Doctors there discovered lots of blood inside her, a partially dismembered 30 week fetus poking through the hole in her uterus and major lacerations to her colon, bladder, cervix and uterus. Officially she died of ―complications of the acute pelvic injuries.‖ Magdalena‘s other child — a 10 month old baby girl, will now grow up in the care of her grandmother. 829
1993 Guadelupe Negron, age 33 Ms. Guadelupe Negron, mother of four, died during her failed second trimester abortion. The abortionist, Dr. David Benjamin — who changed his name from Dr. Elyas Bonrouhi — 830
had been turned down for hospital privileges on the chief‘s opinion that "he didn't even meet what I would consider the bare minimum standard of care." 831
Earlier in his career Dr. Benjamin was charged with unbelievable incompetence including continuing vaginal surgery after the anesthesia had worn off and sewing together the wrong parts of a woman‘s anatomy! 832 Incredibly, he was allowed to resume his medical practice after only three months! The New York Times, who reported on this story, said that paramedics arrived to find a dead woman with the ―breathing tube erroneously
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inserted in her stomach instead of her lungs.‖833 The abortionist was more worried about telling them how he gave her oxygen (yeah — to her stomach, mind you) than the fact that she was dead. Preliminary reports indicate that Ms Negron died from a uterine perforation and that she subsequently bled to death in the Metro Women's Center. 834
1992 Deanna Bell, age 13 When Deanna went to the Albany Medical Surgical Center in Chicago, she was 21 weeks pregnant. Following her abortion staff noticed that she had no vital signs and proceeded to attempt to resuscitate her. When, after an hour Deanna had not responded, she was pronounced dead. One has to wonder why the clinic did not call emergency services that have far superior lifesaving equipment. While the clinic says they noticed her situation just two minutes after surgery, the family‘s lawyer says this is unlikely, seeing as she was already moved into the recovery area when she died. An expert witness testified that Deanna was given Brevital (a short-acting anesthetic) in a dose of at least 250 mg, which is more than an adult needs, and certainly more than a child patient. The manufacturer‘s website says that this drug should only be used in settings that provide
for continuous monitoring, resuscitative drugs and equipment and trained personnel. as cardiac arrest can occur.
835 It seems likely that Deanna was given too high a dose of Brevital, which led to her heart stopping, she was not being continuously monitored and the respiratory equipment and training at the clinic was not sufficient for the risks. 836
(Source: The Washington Times, Chicago Tribune, RealChoice)
1991 Latachie Veal, age 17 When Latachie went to the West Loop Clinic in Houston for her second trimester abortion she was 22 weeks pregnant. The Yüklə 4,63 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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