“Shannon” was six weeks pregnant when she underwent a legal abortion by suction curettage in the United States. An abortion has inherent risks even for a healthy person, but Shannon’s chronic respiratory conditions put her at further risk. She had both asthma and pre-existing pulmonary tuberculosis.
Despite Shannon’s health, the unspecified abortionist decided to proceed with the abortion procedure under general anesthesia. Shannon died from complications of general anesthesia. Given that her respiratory system was already under serious stress, this should have been very foreseeable.
Someone with either asthma or pulmonary tuberculosis, let alone both, would be considered a high-risk patient for anything involving general anesthesia. A doctor should always conduct necessary evaluations to determine if this would be needlessly risky, especially if the operation is elective. If general anesthesia is deemed truly necessary, these patients need specialized care and additional safeguards to make sure they are receiving enough oxygen.
It is fairly likely that Shannon died sometime in 1978. The study recording her death used CCD data from 1972 to 1978. Another study on abortion deaths from anesthesia complications from 1972 to 1977 also used CDC data and had no case matching Shannon’s. However, this is not absolute proof because the CDC’s abortion data reporting system is flawed and may not know about some deaths until years after they occur— or sometimes not at all. The study on deaths from 1972–1977 was published approximately 5 years before the one that recorded Shannon’s death, so it is possible that the CDC simply found more information on earlier deaths by then.
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