December 5, 2005: Lack of Aftercare Proves Fatal for Sickle Cell Patient

Detoria Nicole Brown was a 27-year-old patient at Los Angels County + USC Medical Center. She was being treated on an ongoing basis for ailments including sickle cell anemia.

On December 1, 2005, she was admitted to LAC+USC for what was considered a medically-indicated abortion. 

On December 3, according to Detoria's mother, Joyce Brown, the hematologist determined that Detoria needed to have an emergency blood transfusion or she would suffer organ failure. 

According to Joyce, Detoria had the central line in place for the transfusion, and the equipment was available, but hospital staff told her that there was not a qualified person to operate the machine. It was over 8 hours before the transfusion was finally administered but by then the harm had been done. Detoria died on December 5.

Joyce filed a complaint with the Department of Health Services. On September 6, 2006, the Department informed Joyce that her complaint was substantiated, providing her with the statement of deficiencies the Department had issued to LAC+USC on August 1, 2006. 

Her father, Clyde Brown, joined his wife in a lawsuit against the facility. The case was thrown out on the grounds that Detoria's parents had not filed a document in a timely manner. The judge ordered the bereaved parents to pay the hospital's legal fees.

Sources:

• Brown v. LAC-USC Medical Center
• LA County Medical Examiners' Office Case Detail

December 5, 1969: Clinic Abortion Kills North Carolina Homemaker

Grok AI illustration

 "Veronica Tyson" was a 40-year-old white homemaker living in a tiny town in central North Carolina. 

In either late October or early November of 1969, Veronica underwent a D&E abortion in an unidentified clinic. 

At that time, abortions were legal in North Carolina for rape, incest, or medical justifications which included "mental health." Since there are no contributing medical factors listed on Veronica's death certificate, we can rule medical reasons out, so Veronica was either a crime victim or was able to successfully argue a "mental health" need.

She must have collapsed somewhere on December 5, because she was dead on arrival at the hospital. Her autopsy showed that she had died from a pulmonary embolism that was attributed to the abortion. 

Since it was a small town, I am also redacting the hospital's name for Veronica's privacy.

Source: Death certificate

1975-1978: Red Flags Ignored Leads To Death For Mystery Woman

A study published in the Southern Medical Journal documented multiple deaths from myocarditis after legal abortion between 1975 and 1978 (all of which were counted through the CDC’s abortion mortality data). One of them was a 29-year-old whose warning signs were ignored until it was too late.

“Collette” had suffered from tuberculosis as a child (although she had recovered since then). Three months before her fatal abortion, she’d been diagnosed with early-onset rheumatoid arthritis. But what should have made any medical professional reconsider an elective operation was what had happened only a month before the abortion date: Collette had been in the emergency room for a lung inflammation known as pleurisy.

Grok AI illustration

When the abortion was about to take place, Collette reported chest pain again. She should have been thoroughly examined to be sure that she was a candidate for elective surgery and to check the cause of her pain, especially given her recent and lifelong medical history. But instead of being treated as the alarming red flag that it was, Collette’s chest pain was written off as merely a sign that she was anxious— not over the operation she was about to have or even her recent ER visit, but assumed to be about the pregnancy itself. Her pain should have been seen as a genuine health concern, not dismissed as a figment of her imagination.

Collette was given paracervical anesthesia and the abortion was carried out. Immediately after, she had trouble breathing and orthopnea, which is a known sign of heart failure or other serious problems. She became tachycardic and was given the working diagnosis of a pulmonary embolism. Treatment was started, but Collette went into full cardiorespiratory arrest only five hours after the abortion. All attempts at resuscitation failed.

It was no wonder that Collette had been in so much pain. The autopsy showed she had suffered pericarditis, prominent myocarditis, focal myositis and interstitial pneumonitis. Myocardial edema was present with fiber necrosis. Her pericardial cavity contained about 150 ml of bloody fluid. However, there was no evidence of a pulmonary embolism. Not only were the red flags ignored, but Collette had also been misdiagnosed and treated for the wrong complication in her last day of life.

Before any elective operation, let alone one with so many serious risks, any client should have received a careful pre-op examination before they were put on the operating table. Collette needed real medical attention, not abortion.

Case report(see Case 3)

1973-1978: rare form of ectopic pregnancy missed by abortion facility

“Peggy” had an abortion while pregnant with her fourth child, with all her other children being born alive. Had Peggy not gone in for an abortion, she would have been more likely to survive for reasons that will be fully explained at the end.

The facility estimated Peggy’s uterus to be at normal size for someone not pregnant even though her own tracking of her cycle put her at nine weeks pregnant. This should have been an obvious sign that she needed further examination— had there been an adequate pre-op examination and ultrasound, it should have been easy to make the diagnosis that could have saved Peggy’s life.

After the attempt at a suction curettage abortion, the facility examined what, if anything, was removed only with the naked eye. The “specimen” was not sent to a pathologist for examination, wasting another chance to realize what should have been obvious from the start.

31 days later, Peggy bled to death.

The autopsy found blood in Peggy’s abdominal cavity from the hemorrhage, along with the diagnosis that could have saved her if it had been given while she was still alive. The reason behind the inconsistent uterine size and lack of fetal remains was that she had a rare cornual or interstitial pregnancy. This refers to either a type of ectopic pregnancy that involves implantation at the site where the fallopian tube meets the uterus or a pregnancy involving implantation in an improperly formed “horn” of a bicornate uterus. Although the placenta was intact, the left wall of Peggy’s uterus was eroded by injury. She had bled to death.

Dr. Wendy Recant, the director of surgical pathology at Michael Reese Hospital, wrote after another woman’s death from the same negligence, “It would be the grossest kind of malpractice to miss one ectopic pregnancy and one woman went home and bled to death.” Yet  negligence of this level is so widespread and common in the abortion industry that women with undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies who choose (or are coerced into) abortions are more likely to die than those who don’t.

A few others who died after abortion facilities negligently failed to diagnose ectopic pregnancies include Yvette Poteat, Doris Grant, Laura Sorrels, Tia Archeiva Parks, Brenda Vise, Lynette Wallace, Sherry Emry, Josefina Garcia, Claudia Caventou, Magnolia Reed Thomas, Angela Satterfield, Gladyss Estanislao, Janyth Caldwell, Barbara Dillon, Nancy Hopper and unidentified women and girls given the following pseudonyms: Ava Roe, Tanya Roe, Evelyn Roe, Shayna Roe, Ella Roe, Kristy Roe, Skye Roe, Tess Roe, Denise Roe.

1980: Little known about CDC case

“Tia” was of Asian and/or Pacific Islander descent, between the ages of 30 and 34, and was included in the CDC’s count for deaths from legal abortion in 1980. 

She is on the Life Dynamics Blackmun Wall, citing information from the Centers for Disease Control.

December 3, 1988: Teen Bleeds to Death in Fake Clinic

SUMMARY: Teresa Causey, age 17, bled to death on December 3, 1988 after an abortion performed by Joe McDaniel in Macon, GA.

Teresa Ann Causey clutched her mother's hand during her safe and legal abortion by Joe Wesley McDaniel on December 3, 1988. Her mother later said that 17-year-old Teresa's last words were, "Oh, mama, mama, it hurts so much!" Then she lost consciousness on the abortion table.

When McDaniel was unable to awaken her, he tried smelling salts, slapped her face, then tried to reach another doctor before finally calling an ambulance.

Teresa had two perforations of her uterus and two lacerated veins. She died of massive hemorrhage the day of her abortion.

An investigation found that McDaniel had been operating in an unlicensed facility, and that he had broken the law requiring abortions after 13 weeks be done in a hospital; Teresa had been 15 weeks pregnant with a little boy.

No charges were pressed against McDaniel for Teresa's death, the illegal abortion, or the unlicensed facility. Teresa left behind two children.

---

Sources:

• Macon Telegraph and News 12-5-88;
• Associated Press 12-5-88, 1-26-89, 11-2-89
• "Macon doctor not charged in teen death," Marietta (GA) Journal, Jan. 27, 1989

1974-1975: Not Even Pregnant

“Inez” went to an abortion facility in the United States, unaware of the negligence that would lead to her death. She was perfectly healthy and should still be alive.

At the facility, Inez was put under local anesthesia for the first-trimester abortion. She suffered a fatal reaction to the anesthesia and died.

After Inez’s death, it was discovered that she was not even pregnant to begin with.

If the abortion facility didn’t realize Inez wasn’t pregnant, that means she wasn’t given a competent pre-op examination or even a pregnancy test. However, there have been lawsuits after clients were sold “abortions” when the abortionist knew they were not pregnant. Inez was a victim of incompetence or greed or both.

Others who died after abortion procedures sold to them when they were not actually pregnant include Rosael Rodriguez-Rosado, 15-year-old Delores Jean Smith, “Sandra Roe” and Synthia Dennard.

Comparative risk study, hospital vs nonhospital

Comparative risk study, local vs general anesthesia

Abortion facilities and the Risk of Death

1973: Suicide after Saline

Sometime from 1972 to 1981, "Jade" went to an abortion facility that was participating in the JPSA (Joint Program for the Study of Abortion). 87 total maternal deaths were reported in the study analyzing deaths from second-trimester abortion. It is important to note that this study is a review of cases and should by no means be treated as a comprehensive total of all maternal deaths from second-trimester legal abortion in the studied location and time. News reports, lawsuits and other studies were later compared by researchers and found far more deaths that went uncounted in the JPSA’s tally.

Despite having little specific data for each case, it was possible for later researchers to confirm that some of the deaths reported did not match any already known to their records. One of these women was given the pseudonym “Jade.”

Jade underwent an instillation abortion in the second trimester sometime between 1972 and 1981. This method was done by extracting fluid from the amniotic sac and replacing it with a toxic liquid solution, usually hypertonic saline or a prostaglandin compound. After the baby died from internal and external exposure to the chemical, Jade would have gone through labor and deliver the corpse.

Jade’s mental health was adversely affected by her ordeal. After the abortion, she committed suicide.

Her case is consistent with a case from a study noting a suicide after a saline abortion in 1973.

J Reprod Med. July 1985 Edition

The Comparative Safety of Second-Trimester Abortion Methods, Ciba Found. Symposium 1985