Den of Quackery Closes, More Rending of Garments on the Left

The sackcloth and ashes are being dragged out over the demise of a nasty Virginia abortion mill. I'll take the examples of weeping and lamentation from "Virginia Abortion Clinic, Busiest In State, Closes Due To New State Regulation," in the Huffington Post.

“I was deeply saddened to learn that NOVA Women’s Healthcare in Fairfax City has been forced to close its doors," executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Tarina Keene said in a statement. "NOVA Women’s Healthcare has provided safe, exemplary medical care in Northern Virginia for over 10 years, and was one of the largest women’s health centers in the Commonwealth. Its closure affects thousands of Virginia women and families, and leaves its many patients without their trusted healthcare provider.”  

Shall we look at a 2012 inspection deficiencies report?

Six of of 20 patients (30%) whose records were reviewed were not given physical exams, and doctors were not reviewing their medical histories, prior to abortions.

A staff member looked over the abortion tissues and told the doctor that the specimen was "okay." The doctor then signed off as if he or she had completed a proper pathology exam. Failure to do a proper pathology exam can lead to incomplete abortion or failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy, both of which are potentially fatal to the patient. (One patient whose ectopic pregnancy NOVA failed to diagnose suffered a potentially fatal rupture. She collapsed at home, unable to reach a phone, and was fortunately discovered before she bled to death.)

Fourteen of 15 patient records reviewed had discrepancies in documentation of anesthesia. The patients reportedly underwent "conscious sedation" but their level of anesthesia was checked as "general anesthesia."

Given how risky anesthesia drugs are, do we really want them administered by somebody who doesn't know the difference between conscious sedation and general anesthesia? (Or were these women given general anesthesia that was incorrectly documented elsewhere as conscious sedation?)

There were numerous other issues with documentation as well, including contradictory notations made on patients who had to be hospitalized due to complications, and there were failures do document who ordered what medications to be given to patients. There were also no discharge orders signed by doctors.

The patient who later suffered the ruptured ectopic pregnancy was discharged from the facility when she was too weak to walk and had to be carried to a vehicle.

Is this "exemplary medical care"? To be treated by a doctor who doesn't examine you or take your history before performing surgery? To have your records screwed up so that nobody can be sure exactly what happened? To be discharged from the facility when you're still too weak to even walk?

HuffPo didn't even bother to do a little check on erstwhile owner Mi Yong Kim, who killed one patient with sloppy practices surrounding anesthesia, and who attempted to perform a first-trimester abortion on a woman who was 26 weeks pregnant, eventually finishing the abortion without informing the mother of the mistake and giving her a chance to decide to save her baby.

 Yet NARAL is "saddened" that this place is closing.