Summary: 22-year-old Se'mika Shaw died a painful death on March 4, 2000 from complications of an abortion performed by Kermit Gosnell at his "house of horrors" in Philadelphia
Authorities Notified; Respond Lackadaisically
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| Kermit Gosnell |
Brief Factual Summary: The file was opened as a result of a Medical Malpractice Payment Report. The underlying malpractice case involved the death of a 22 year old female following the termination of her 5th pregnancy. Following a seemingly routine procedure on 3/1/02, the patient was taken to the ER at the University of Pennsylvania with complaints of pain and heavy bleeding. The patient underwent surgery but the surgeon was unable to locate any perforation and the patient died from infection and sepsis. Although the incident is tragic, especially in light of the age of the patient, the risk was inherent with the procedure performed by Respondent [Gosnell] and administrative action against respondent’s license is not warranted.
RECOMMENDATION: Z-02, Prosecution not Warranted
An Agonizing Death
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| Se'mika Shaw |
Margo believed that Se'mika, whom the family called Mika, sought an abortion because she already had two young children. She and her same-age cousins were the best of friends and were preparing to set up housekeeping together.
She underwent her abortion on March 1, 2000, five months into her pregnancy.
Mika called the facility the next day to say that she was bleeding profusely. According to court records she was not instructed to seek care.
Two days later, March 4, Mika collapsed on the floor of her family home in the presence of some of her cousins. One of those young cousins later called Margo to tell her that Mika was dead.
Margo was bewildered because Mika had been young and healthy. Margo went to the house to join the grieving relatives and started to hear the story. Mika had been bleeding profusely, writhing and screaming in pain on the floor. The young cousins tried to convince her to go to the hospital. They were afraid to call the clinic because at some point they'd been told not to call if there was a problem.
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| Screenshot of Margo Davidson from "Institutional Denial," 3801 Lancaster, 2014 |
Then Mika's mother, Linda, arrived and saw the condition her daughter was in. She took Mika to the hospital, but by then it was too late to save her.
Margo was later told that the abortion had been incomplete; part of the placenta had been left behind. Her young cousin had died from a perforated uterus and sepsis.
Margo was also a minister and did the eulogy at Mika's funeral. The young cousins were hysterical, trying to pull their friend from the casket and bring her back to life. Margo didn't allow the young cousins to go the the cemetery because she was afraid they'd try to jump into the grave.
They Already Knew About Gosnell
Not that forwarding information to the Department of Health would have accomplished anything: The DOH had first inspected and given a 12-month license to Gosnell's clinic in 1979, in spite of numerous and alarming shortcomings, and didn't review the clinic again until 1989, when it was again permitted to stay open in spite of multiple shortcomings that clearly endangered patients. They repeated this type of review in 1992, again approving the facility in spite of appalling conditions, and in 1993 they reported that previous deficiencies had been corrected, despite continuing deplorable conditions, because of a new politically-motivated policy not to inspect abortion clinics unless they'd gotten a complaint.
Gosnell was able to get away with what he did because of calculated decisions by abortion-rights activists to turn a blind eye. I've dubbed this phenomenon "the Compton-Carr Effect," after its most straightforward proponent: Janis Compton-Carr of the Florida Abortion Council. After the Miami Herald exposed a nasty abortion mill featuring many of the same kinds of deplorable conditions found at Gosnell's clinic -- dirty instruments, untrained staff, illegal peddling of narcotics -- Compton-Carr said, "In my gut, I am completely aghast at what goes on at that place. But I staunchly oppose anything that would correct this situation in law."
Fortunately, thanks to the internet and crowdfunding, we can bypass the abortion lobby's cheerleaders in Hollywood and the mainstream media. Filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, along with journalist Magdalena Segieda, raised $2.1 million to produce Gosnell: The trial of America's biggest serial killer, a movie that closely follows the real story. I highly recommend both this film, and the documentary 3801 Lancaster.
For more background on Gosnell and how he got away with his crimes for so long, read:
To get an idea of how slovenly the Medical Board's investigation was, please note that Semika underwent the fatal abortion in March of 2000. The Board didn't even get the year right when reviewing this death before blowing the entire matter off, just over four years after the fact.
The Grand Jury Report on Kermit Gosnell noted:
In December of 2001, Ms. Choung had filed a detailed, written complaint about Gosnell to the Department of State. In March of 2002, she testified in a follow-up interview. As the Grand Jury Report noted:
More of the Same
The Grand Jury Report on Kermit Gosnell noted:
Before Department of State prosecutors decided not to investigate the 22-year-old patient’s death, they had been told of Gosnell’s many illegal practices. What makes these prosecutors’ inaction even more astonishing is that they did know more than the bare facts included in the Board attorney’s evaluation of the case. On the same day in 2004 that they decided not to do anything about Semika Shaw’s death, these same two prosecutors also closed the investigation into the complaint brought to the Department of State more than two years earlier by Marcella Stanley Choung. That was the complaint that had alerted the Board of Medicine – eight years before Karnamaya Mongar died – to almost all of the same violations revealed by this Grand Jury’s investigation.
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| Police photo of one of the cats at Gosnell's clinic |
She informed the department investigator that Gosnell was using unlicensed workers (including herself) to give IV anesthesia to patients when he was not at the clinic; that his facility was filthy; that two sick, flea-infested cats roamed freely in the procedure rooms, vomiting throughout; that Gosnell ate in the procedure rooms; that the autoclave used to sterilize instruments was broken; that he reused single-use curettes; that there were no licensed nurses at the facility when IV anesthesia was administered; that Gosnell allowed one patient to use her cousin’s insurance card to pay for an abortion; that Gosnell performed abortions on “underage children” against their will if their mothers asked him to; and that he performed other abortions without consent forms.The "investigation" into Ms. Choung's report consisted of three phone calls. Nobody visited the clinic. Nobody interviewed the employees. Nobody contacted the patient who had given Ms. Choung permission to share her contact information with the state. All that came of it was a recommendation -- which was never followed up -- that the Department of Health should inspect the facility.
More of the Same
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| Drug dosage chart created c. 1995 by 15-year-old Ashley Baldwin for use by other staff at Gosnell's clinic. |
They did not enter the clinic again until they were invited to do so by the DEA and Philadelphia DA for the drug raid in 2010. In the 16 years since the new head-in-the-sand policy, they had failed to investigate after receiving at least 6 serious complaints including two reports of patient deaths.
A Pattern of Enabling Quackery
Fortunately, thanks to the internet and crowdfunding, we can bypass the abortion lobby's cheerleaders in Hollywood and the mainstream media. Filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, along with journalist Magdalena Segieda, raised $2.1 million to produce Gosnell: The trial of America's biggest serial killer, a movie that closely follows the real story. I highly recommend both this film, and the documentary 3801 Lancaster.
*Most documents spell her name "Semika," without the apostrophe. It is pronounced "sha-MEE-kah."
- Verified: Gosnell Got Snipping Idea at NAF Seminar
- Gosnell Clinic Even Nastier than Grand Jury Reported
- The Gosnell Patient Who Barely Escaped With Her Life
- Kermit Gosnell and the Milgram Experiment
- Gosnell: The One That Got Away, and Hope for Others
- Gosnell and Viability: Where's the Line?
- Gosnell and Post-Viability Abortions
- Gosnell: Location Can Mean Misdemeanor vs. Murder
- Gosnell: The Grand Jury Convened
- Why "Gosnell" Must be Told: The Compton-Carr Effect
- Why the Left must Censor us on Gosnell: The "Outlier" Lie
- "Snipping" and why the Left Must Silence Us on Gosnell
Watch Prochoice Oversight Leads to Agonizing Death on YouTube.
Watch Prochoice Oversight Leads to Agonizing Death on Rumble.
Watch Prochoice Oversight Leads to Agonizing Death on Rumble.
Sources:
- Kermit Gosnell Grand Jury Report
- "Gosnell Timeline -- what took the state so long to inspect this house of horrors?" Saynsumthn's Blog, May 7, 2013
- "Institutional Denial," 3801 Lancaster, 2014
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