1974: "Therapeutic" abortion proves fatal for California mother

Life Dynamics lists 38-year-old Bonnie Fix on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by safe, legal abortions. LDI put together the following information on Bonnie's death:

Bonnie, a mother of four, was admitted to Fresno Community Hospital on February 7, 1974.

Doctors there performed an abdominal hysterectomy on Bonnie, removing her uterus along with her unborn baby.

Codes used at the state registrar's office inidcate that an abortion had been induced on Bonnie for medical reasons.

Several days after her hysterectomy, Bonnie began to suffer bowel and lung problems.

She suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead on February 12.

We don't know enough about Bonnie's case to know if the baby was killed as an unfortunate side-effect of a medically necessary hysterectomy -- say, for aggressive uterine cancer -- or if Bonnie and/or her doctor just thought an abortion was the easiest thing to do in her case and used a medical condition as justification. The fact that such a drastic method as hysterectomy was chosen tends to support the former, but Bonnie's age and the propensity at the time for abortionists to do the most drastic of surgeries as a matter of course -- in many cases as fertility control -- tends to support the latter.

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Abortion leads to hysterectomy; woman sues PP

Woman alleges medical malpractice after abortion

A 40-year-old Nebraska woman said in a lawsuit filed Friday that she had an emergency hysterectomy because of a botched abortion at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lincoln last month.

The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, said she lost four liters of blood — the equivalent of 80 percent of the average woman’s blood volume, according to the lawsuit — and that the procedure caused her excruciating pain.

....

[Abortionist Meryl Severson] resigned from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in March 2001 after performing an elective abortion in 2000 in violation of university policy. He joined Planned Parenthood in May 2001.

....

According to the lawsuit, the woman was about eight weeks pregnant when she contacted Planned Parenthood in July and scheduled an abortion at the South Street Center. .... [A]ccording to the suit, the woman had an ultrasound, which indicated a tilted uterus. [She] was taken to an examination room and given an injection in her cervix, the lawsuit said. She then heard a suction sound, felt pressure in the uterus and “immediately complained of excruciating pain.”

When she told Severson and the attendants to stop, the suit said, the doctor replied, “We can’t stop.” Three employees then held the woman down while Severson completed the suction, according to the lawsuit.

Afterward, the woman felt sharp pain, nausea and was bleeding, the lawsuit said. While in the recovery area, her friend tried to help her to a bathroom, but she passed out, fell to the floor and suffered the first of three seizures, the lawsuit said.

....

A signed operative report from a physician at the hospital said the woman had experienced a “catastrophic perforation” of the uterus during the abortion. ....Because of the “extensive nature of the trauma,” the report said, the physician summoned a second doctor and they performed an emergency hysterectomy on the woman. The doctors took photographs of the uterus to show the damage, according to the lawsuit.

Bled to death after abortion at Planned Parenthood

Diana Lopez, age 25, was 19 weeks pregnant when she went to a Planned Parenthood for an abortion on February 28, 2002. She was 19 weeks pregnant.

Before the day was over, Diana had bled to death. She left two sons, 4-year-old Frankie and 2-year-old Fabian, motherless. The taxpayers of California paid for the fatal abortion, courtesy of Medi-Cal.

After the abortion, Diana had been rushed by ambulance to County Women‘s Hospital, where a hysterectomy was performed and Diana was given five units of whole blood in a futile attempt to save her life.

Diana‘s autopsy noted that Diana had hemorrhaged from a perforation of her cervix.

Diana‘s husband, David, filed suit, alleging that the abortionist‘s haste caused severe lacerations that killed his wife. The suit says that Diana‘s abortion was rushed through in ony six minutes, although Planned Parenthood‘s own web site says such a procedure should take 10 to 20 minutes.

The lawsuit also blames Planned Parenthood for proceeding with an abortion even though her hemoglobin levels were abnormally low prior to the procedure.

The family‘s attorney also noted that in 2000, the same Planned Parenthood rushed another woman though a similar 6-minute abortion, lacerating the patient‘s cervix, rupturing her uterus, perforating her sigmoid colon and causing the loss of 2 liters of blood. Planned Parenthood also delayed three hours before transferring the patient to a hospital. Fortunately, this patient survived her ordeal.

A review of Los Angeles County civil cases indicates that this patient was probably Kimberly Thomas, who sued on April 19, 2002, after her abortion by Joseph Marmet. Kimberly‘s suit was one of roughly 50 filed against the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood from 1983 to 2002. The medical board took no action against Marmet.

The medical board took no action against Diana‘s abortionist, Dr. Mark Maltzer, either. However, the California Department of Health Services investigated the facility and cited Planned Parenthood for:

* Failing to institute a necessary change in medical protocol relating to the use of laminaria (used to expand the cervix) in the dilation and evacuation procedure.
* Lacking the evidence to show a completed assessment of the competency and credentials of the physician who carried out the abortion.
* Inadequately advising against a potentially dangerous second-trimester D&E procedure based on low hemoglobin levels.
* Failing to follow proper surgical abortion policy and procedure by administering Cytotec to the patient on day one of the two-day abortion procedure, when policy requires it to be administered 90 minutes before the abortion procedure.
* Failing to inform Planned Parenthood‘s governing body of any adverse outcome related to patient care within the facility.
* Failing to notify the Health Department of a patient's death within 24 hours of the occurrence.
* Keeping incomplete records describing the services provided to Lopez.

The fact that the Planned Parenthood has made &quo;corrections&quo; to satisfy the state does not satisfy Diana‘s family. "It was wrong. It was wrong,"; said Judy Lopez, Diana‘s older sister. "She was healthy. She was fine."

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