Lime 5: Aspirated Vomitus

Aspirating vomit was not an unusual mechanism of injury, with both aspiration pneumonia and respiratory arrest resulting in brain damage. If you've been following this series, or the RealChoice blog or my YouTube channel, you've encountered the deaths of Dawn Ravenell and Ta Tanisha Wesson, who began choking on their own vomit during abortions and as a result ended up dead.

Let's look at the two cases Mark Crutcher included in Lime 5.

First is Gail Mazo -- and I realized that all this time I'd had the wrong date for her death. Twenty-seven-year-old Gail went to Mt. Sinai in New York for an abortion in July of 1978, because she had ulcerative colitis. While she was under general anesthesia for the abortion, Gail began to vomit, and breathed the vomit into her lungs. The material in her lungs caused complications that killed Gail. Gail's survivors filed suit against the anesthesiologist for failure to recognize that Gail was a high-risk patient and to treat her accordingly. The family and the doctor eventually settled out of court for $800,000. (NEED ORIGINAL SOURCE DOCUMENT: New York County (NY) Supreme Court Case No. 8517-80)

Dennis W. Miller

The second is Erna Fisher. On March 15, 1988, 18-year-old Erna was nervous as 41-year-old Dennis W. Miller prepared to perform a safe and legal abortion on her on in his Kansas City, Kansas office. Miller brought Erna's mother, Ocie, into the room to hold her daughter's hand. During the abortion, Erna suddenly sat up, went into convulsions, and began to throw up. Miller continued with the abortion while Erna choked on her own vomit. He delayed another 10 minutes before summoning emergency help. His only apparent attempt to revive her was with smelling salts. When an ambulance crew arrived, they found Erna's airway still full of vomit. Miller was making no attempt at resuscitation, but was holding Erna in his arms. He justified failing to check her airway or provide her with oxygen by saying, "Since I didn't realize what was going on, I didn't think it would have made any difference." Miller later admitted that he had given Erna pain medications that he knew could cause vomiting, and that he hadn't asked her when she had last eaten.

Watch Lime 5: Aspirated Vomitus on YouTube.