March 9, 1914: A Doctor's Fatal Work in Chicago

Elizabeth O'Donnell was a homemaker who had come to the United States from Germany. On March 9, 1914, at the age of 33, she died at St. Elizabeth's Hospital from blood poisoning. 

Her husband, Joseph, testified at an inquest that she had told him she'd paid 59-year-old Dr. Alvin C. Hiester $10 (around $318 in 2025) to perform an abortion on February 1 at his Chicago office.

Heister was not a marginal doctor. He was an allopath who had graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago in 1880. According to his obituary, he was a member of the Chicago Medical Association. 

Hiester was held without bail by the Coroner, and was indicted on March 15, but the case never went to trial.

Heister died at his Chicago home after a two-week illness on February 25, 1915 at the age of 60. 

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. During the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, the development of blood transfusion techniques, and the introduction of antibiotics. 

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Sources: 

• "Doctor Held for Murder; Illegal Operation Charged," The (Chicago) Inter Ocean, March 10, 1914
• "Local Doings in Tabloid Form," The (Chicago) Day Book, March 10, 1914
• "Dr. Hiester Goes to Jail," Chicago Tribune, March 11, 1914
• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• "Dr. Alvin C. Hiester Dies," The Chicago Sunday Tribune, February 28, 1915