RealChoice: December 31, 1975: Sudden Death on New Years Eve

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

December 31, 1975: Sudden Death on New Years Eve

Pilar Carranco

It's not clear how 18-year-old Pilar Carranco of Watsonville, California decided to go to 32-year-old Dr. Richard J. Scotti for a safe and legal abortion that New Year's Eve of 1975. She hadn't consulted with her mother or even told her that she was pregnant. Likely she chose Scotti because he was an ob/gyn who specialized in abortions.

Her faith in him was sadly misplaced.

The suction machine Scotti used was 8 years old and had never been intended for use on humans. One of its designers testified that the machine was lab equipment, not medical equipment, and lacked safety features to ensure that it could only produce suction, not blow air.

According to Barbara Zappas, Scotti's assistant, after her boss turned on the machine he said that "it sounded strange." As Zappas knelt down to check to see if the bottles on the machine were leaking, "someone said [the patient] was going into convulsions."

Scotti had started the abortion without ensuring that his equipment was working properly.

Zappas testified that she pulled the instruments out of the way while Scotty started chest compressions. She started providing rescue breaths while a receptionist called 911. Ambulance attendants arrived and took over CPR, which they continued on the ride to Dominican Hospital. There, staff took over Pilar's care and worked for 40 minutes to no avail. The young woman was dead.

An autopsy found air emboli in both her heart and in a vein leading from her uterus. Watsonville Hospital pathologist Harlow D Standage said that the emboli were the obvious cause of her death.

A pathologist testified that the machine being hooked up backwards is the most likely explanation for the air in Pilar's body, but another doctor concurred that it's the most likely explanation, but he also would have expected to see "a lot more air" in Pilar's body if the machine was the issue.

Scotti's defense strategy was to shift blame for Pilar's death from his carelessness to the actions of emergency room staff. His attorney questioned them on the stand about whether they had turned Pilar onto her left side and attempted to drain the air from her heart, which, the attorney said, was "a recommended procedure for treatment of an air embolism."

Scotti himself took the stand during his trial and accused the District Attorney with sensationalizing the case. He countered testimony by several witnesses in the hospital who said Scotti had admitted that he had "blown out" Pilar's uterus.

His testimony was internally inconsistent. He said that he had put his thumb over the end of the canula and felt suction before inserting it into Pilar's uterus. But after he had inserted it, "I wasn't getting any tissue back. I turned around or said to Barbara,' I think there may be a leak around the plug. Check the system for leaks.'"

It was at that point, Scotti said, that Pilar went into convulsions and he started emergency measures.

After leaving the hospital, Scotti said, he went back to check the machine and it was indeed providing suction.

In spite of saying that he had checked the machine before starting the abortion, Scotti also admitted that he'd told the ER doctor that he might have hooked the machine up backwards. One must wonder why he would say that if he had indeed been so certain that it had been producing suction.

Scotti testified that as doctors were fighting to save his patient, he "walked away and prayed." After Pilar was declared dead, Scotti said, a woman he described as "a sister" came to him and comforted him, saying that patients die sometimes and it wasn't his fault. "She was like a message from God."

Scotti's attorney also asked expert witnesses if other activities -- such as yoga, squeezing her legs together, or douching -- could have caused the fatal embolism. The doctor said no, but when asked about "oral copulation" he said he had read of some danger from this activity.

The attorney also argued that the autopsy was not done properly and didn't check for other causes of death such as an allergic reaction to the xylocaine used for anesthesia during the abortion.

Dr. James Weston, a teaching pathologist from the University of New Mexico testified that if the machine had been hooked up backwards, Pilar's uterus and heart would have been distended, and there would have been a large amount of frothy blood rather than two air bubbles. Those air bubbles, this pathologist held, could have been caused by the autopsy. the 50 to 100 cc of air in her heart could have been caused by other reasons. This pathologist also asserted that the original autopsy had not examined Pilar's brain and thus failed to rule out possible other causes of death.

The 7-woman 5-man jury listened to eight days of testimony in the manslaughter trial before retiring. After 4 1/2 hours of deliberation the they were deadlocked eight to four. The judge expressed frustration that they announced their were deadlocked after such a short time of deliberation. The foreman said that the split came on the third ballot, and "We have the opinion it will not change."

They deliberated another hour then were sent home for the weekend.

Pilar's parents, Juan and Carmelita Carranco, sued Scotti.

They were right. The case finally ended in a mistrial but faced additional charges with the medical board, both for Pilar's death and for botching a female circumcision on an adult woman.

Charges dismissed.

The prosecutor argued that Scotti hadn't been double checking when he went back to his office and took the hoses off the machine; he asserted that he was destroying evidence. The defense argued that instead of just taking the tubing off, Scotti would have made sure the tubing was on correctly. The prosecution argued that because embolism was a possible cause of death, the ME took precautions to keep air from entering the heart.

Autopsy found placenta still in place along with a 9 - 10 week fetus.

Scotti's license was revoked by the medical board effective January 30, 1978 on grounds of gross negligence both in Pilar's case and in the case of two adult women who suffered complications from female circumcisions performed by Scotti.

When the judge declared a mistrail, Scotti said he wasn't suprised. Pilar's mother went outside and wept.

HT: killed-by-choice

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