Two Criminal, Two Safe-and-Legal

On December 21, 1915, 34-year-old Mrs. Anna Hunt died at Chicago's Rhodes Avenue Hospital from complications of an abortion perpetrated that day by an unknown person.


On December 11, 1926, fifteen-year-old Emily Mueller underwent a criminal abortion somewhere in Chicago. She died on December 21. Midwife Magdelane Stegeman, maiden name Motzny, was booked on December 28. The coroner initially cleared Stegeman. She was nevertheless indicted for felony murder by the Grand Jury on February 15, 1927. Stegeman was later implicated in the 1941 abortion death of Rose Smith.

Denise Holmes, a 24-year-old Australian woman living in Texas, decided to undergo a safe and legal abortion at Avalon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on her way home for Christmas of 1970. Denise checked into Avalon Hospital (an abortion facility owned by Edward Campbell Allred) on December 21. Denise suffered an amniotic fluid embolism that carried pieces of fetal bone marrow into her lungs. She was pronounced dead by Edward Allred at Avalon at 5pm. Denise is the first confirmed abortion death at an Allred facility, before the National Abortion Federation was founded, with Allred's Family Planning Associates Medical Group as a member. Other women known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include Patricia Chacon, Mary Pena, Josefina Garcia, Lanice Dorsey, Joyce Ortenzio, Tami Suematsu, Deanna Bell, Susan Levy, Christina Mora, Ta Tanisha Wesson, Nakia Jorden, Maria Leho, Kimberly Neil, Maria Rodriguez, and Chanelle Bryant.

Earl McLeod

WAKE-UP has posted state medical board disciplinary documents against Dr. Earl McLeod (pictured),regarding the death of an abortion patient on December 21, 1997. WAKE-UP has identified her as 27-year-old Jennifer Halner. On December 20, 1997, she went to Potomac Family Planning for a safe, legal abortion. McLeod's anesthesiologist, identified only as Dr. K., started an IV, and Jennifer was hooked up to a cardiac monitor, blood pressure monitor, and pulse oximeter. Dr. K administered Versed (for sedation and memory impairment), Sublimaze (a short-acting narcotic used for short-duration pain control), Propofol (a sedative for anesthesia), with Lidocaine, a local anesthetic. Jennifer  was transferred to recovery at 10:10 a.m., still unconscious but breathing on her own. Her pulse was 103 (very rapid). A nurse identified only as Nurse W put an oxygen mask on her, but took off the cardiac monitor and pulse oximeter. Another nurse took off the blood pressure cuff to use on another patient. At around 10:20 a.m., Nurse W noticed that Jennifer was still unresponsive. She told a nursing assistant to get  Zofran, an antiemetic, from the anesthesiologist, who was in the second procedure room with McLeod. Dr. K gave the Zofran to Nurse W without evaluating the patient. Not surprisingly, this did nothing to revive Jennifer. Nurse W then asked Kr. K for Romazicon,  used to reverse the effects of anesthesia. Dr. K again provided the drug without examining the patient. Nurse H realized that couldn't find a pulse, and that Jennifer's pupils were dilated. She fetched Dr. K. He found Jennifer unresponsive, with a blood pressure an alarmingly low 60/40. He stared a second IV and began to perform CPR, using a pediatric-sized bag-valve mask. Meanwhile, McLeod performed two other procedures before finally entering the recovery room. He administered additional IV medications, and said that the patient was hooked up to an EKG monitor even though there was no documentation whatsoever of her cardiac rhythm. She was also not hooked up to a pulse oximeter that would tell the staff how much oxygen was in her blood. Dr. K told somebody to administer Epinephrine, Ephedrine, and Lidocaine -- all appropriate drugs. Finally, at around 10:42 a.m., McLeod told somebody to call 911. Paramedics arrived and found Jennifer in cardiac arrest. They noted that nobody had put a breathing tube into the patient to ensure that air was being pumped into her lungs and not her stomach. The medics immediately began appropriate resuscitation, intubating Jennifer, hooking her up to a cardiac monitor, defibrillating her, and administering appropriate drugs. The medics transported her to a to hospital, arriving at 11:09 a.m. The ER physician noted that Jennifer's pupils were fixed and dilated. After aggressive resuscitative efforts, her heart was restored to a stable rhythm, and she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. But despite their best efforts, she died at 4:15 a.m. on December 21. McLeod also ran the Hillcrest abortion mill in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where Kelly Morse had died in 1996 after being inadequately resuscitated. 
 

Not Resuscitated, Allowed to Die, at Phony Virginia Clinic

Dr. Mi Yong Kim

Dr. Mi Yong Kim had a troubled past when "Adelle" walked into her private office on November 16, 2002. She had voluntarily surrendered her New York license in 200 when threatened with revocation for her grotesque mishandling of a 1997 abortion patient. Kim had told the patient that she was 8 weeks pregnant, but upon starting the procedure realized from the massive amount of amniotic fluid that the patient was far more advanced in her pregnancy. Kim instructed the mother to go to the hospital. There, at the urging of a nurse, Kim asked for an ultrasound scan to determine the size of the baby's head -- which indicated a gestational age of just past 26 weeks. Though the baby's heart rate was slow, he or she was still alive. Kim tried so stimulate labor using drugs. Though the baby died, the mother didn't go into labor so Kim performed a C-section and delivered the dead baby. Documents don't indicate if at any point Kim informed the woman that her baby was past the age of viability and could have been saved.

The Virginia medical board did not suspend or yank Kim's license. She was instead placed under stipulations regarding her use of anesthesia in her office and her record-keeping. While under close supervision, she made improvements and had her license fully restored without stipulations on May 8, 2000. 

It was thus that there was nobody keeping a close eye on Mi Yong Kim when a 26-year-old woman identified as "Patient A" (I'll call her "Adelle"), went into Kim's private practice, which was named "Landmark Women's Center," giving the impression that it was a clinic.

Kim did not order proper lab studies, document an appropriate history, or perform a proper exam on Adelle before performing a safe and legal abortion on her on November 16, 2002. Kim administered 25 mg of Versed to Adelle, in response to her reports of pain, over a 10-minute period, without giving the medicine time to take effect.

Kim told the medical board that she did not give Adelle any analgesia for pain because she gives enough Versed to cause amnesia so that the patient can't remember the pain. The board noted that Kim lacked judgment and knowledge of intravenous conscious sedation and that she was not fit to supervise a CRNA.

At the end of the abortion, Kim noted that Adelle's pulse oximeter reading was only 70%, an alarming finding. Kim thought she found a pulse, so she did not assess whether or not Adelle was breathing. She simply ordered her staff to give Adelle oxygen by mask and call 911.

Kim administered Romazicon to reverse the effects of the Versed, but did not notice that Adelle had gone into cardiac arrest. As such, Kim made no effort to resuscitate her. The ambulance crew arrived and transported Adelle to the hospital, where she was declared dead from possible air embolism.

The medical board noted that Kim was not certified in Advanced Cardiopulmonary Life Support, nor was she or anybody else on her staff qualified to perform an intubation or use crash cart equipment. Kim did not document the operative report for Adelle. Kim told the board that the police had told her not to make any further notes in her file.

It's striking how the abortion lobby attacks prolifers for running "fake clinics" -- pregnancy resource centers that don't even pretend to be clinics -- but never goes after doctors like Kim who disguise their offices as clinics in order to give the impression that they've being more closely overseen by officials than they really are.