May 8, 1986: Dying Woman's Screams Brushed Off

SUMMARY: Claudia Caventou, age 33, died on May 8, 1986 after a safe, legal first-trimester abortion at Mercy Medical Clinic in Los Angeles, performed by Dr. Hosni Nagib Fahmy.

On May 8, 1989, 33-year-old Hawaiian native Claudia Caventou went to Mercy Medical Clinic in Los Angeles for a safe, legal abortion. She reported severe abdominal pain, vaginal bleeding, shortness of breath, and nausea -- all clear indicators of an ectopic pregnancy, likely even one that has already ruptured. She reported that she had passed a bloody clump of tissue, which she had brought with her in a jar. 

Dr. Hosni Nagib Fahmy examined the tissue and determined that it did not contain pregnancy tissue. He attributed Claudia's symptoms to a possible miscarriage in process. He noted that Claudia had low blood pressure and pelvic pain. However, without checking his bleeding patient's hemoglobin levels or performing an ultrasound to verify the location of the fetus, Fahmy performed a first trimester suction abortion. 

After the procedure was completed, Claudia was alert and ambulatory, but about twenty minutes later she collapsed.

Claudia's boyfriend was in the waiting room during the procedure. Staff told him that everything was okay, and suggested that he leave and get something to eat. Since he'd heard Claudia screaming earlier, he decided to stay.

Several hours after Claudia had first been taken into the patient area, he heard the doctor come out and tell his staff to call 911. This was about an hour after Fahmy first examined Claudia.

Claudia was taken to a hospital where she underwent emergency surgery for what doctors thought was a perforated uterus. It turned out that Claudia's pregnancy had been in her fallopian tube, which had ruptured during the abortion. Efforts to save Claudia were futile, and she died later that day.

Even though, in theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die of ectopic pregnancy complications, experiences shows that they're actually more likely to die, due to sloppy practices by abortion practitioners.

Fahmy and the Aftermath

According to immigration records, Fahmy is a native of Cairo, born in 1931, who came to the United States on December 1, 1968.

The California Board of Medicine learned of Claudia's death on June 22, 1989 when they were notified by his insurance carrier that he had settled a malpractice case. Fahmy blamed Harbor-UCLA for Claudia's death since they had failed to diagnose the ectopic pregnancy two days earlier and justified his failure to perform an ultrasound on the grounds that the facility didn't make this basic piece of equipment available. A three-year-long investigation resulted in the board revoking Fahmy's license for gross negligence, noting that Claudia was showing signs of "impending cardio-vascular failure" which should have prompted an immediate emergency response rather than a suction curettage. 

Fahmy appealed and got the revocation reversed. He was placed on a five year probationary status and required to take a course about pregnancy complications and to pass an oral examination on obstetrics and gynecology. He completed his probation and is showing on the California Medical Board website as still actively practicing in Los Angles. However, the publicly available phone number for his practice is no longer in service.

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Sources: 

• California Death Certificate # 86-087497
• Los Angeles County Coroner's Report # 86-6084
• Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case # C646212
• Fahmy v. Medical Board of California (1995)
• Grok AI analysis, May 5, 2025, citing the above 
• Medical Board of California D-4999