Doctors' Fatal Work, 1930 and 1931

Chicago, 1930

Mamie Ethel Crowell, age 20, died on April 14, 1930, in the office of Dr. Hans Paulsen, from an abortion performed on her that day. Two days later, Paulsen was booked for manslaughter by abortion. The father of the baby, Uriah Denniston, was booked as accessory. Paulson was held by the Coroner for murder by abortion. Denniston wasn't mentioned in the verdict. On September 1, the indictment was quashed. The source notes "Circumstances suggesting judicial corruption."

Oklahoma City, 1932

Thacker

On April 14, 1932, 21-year-old Isabelle Ferguson died of suspected abortion complications. Two physicians in the University of Oklahoma area, J. W. Eisiminger andRichard E. Thacker, were suspected in the case.

Thacker and Eisiminger were not ordinary doctors who just did abortions on a few patients. They were abortionists, and quack abortionists at that. Singly or as a pair they were implicated in a string of deaths:

February 26, 1929: Marie Epperson
March 19, 1932: Geraldine Easley
April 3, 1932: Ethel Hestland
April 14, 1932: Isabelle Ferguson
April 15, 1932, Ruth Hall
c. April 19, 1932: Robbie Lou Thompson 
April 24, 1932: Virginia Lee Wyckoff (Eisiminger) and Lennis May Roach 
April 25, 1932: Nancy Joe Lee 

Geraldine Easley, age 19, died on March 19, 1932 in Oklahoma City after admitting to an abortion. Thacker and Eisiminger were both suspected, since they had been implicated in so many other abortion deaths. 

Thacker was sentenced to life in prison for Ruth Hall's death. His attorney announced an immediate motion for an appeal, on the grounds that Thacker's other abortions should not have been admitted as testimony.[3]

Pre-Roe: Chicago and California

A Typical Criminal Abortion, Chicago, 1909

On April 13, 1909, Stella Kelly, a 28-year-old waitress, died of septicemia at a hospital in Chicago, from an abortion that had been perpetrated around March 5. Louise Actenberg, age 59, sometimes identified as a doctor and sometimes as a midwife, was charged with murder by abortion by a coroner's jury. 

Achtenberg was also implicated in the 1907 abortion death of Dora Swan, the 1909 abortion death of Florence Wright, the 1920 abortion death of Violet McCormick, and the 1924 death of Madelyn Anderson. I can find no record that she was ever incarcerated, which is hardly surprising, given how hospitable Chicago has typically been to the many doctors and midwives who perpetrated abortions in the city.

Safe and Legal in California, 1968

Stella Saenz, age 42, had arranged for a legal abortion in the spring of 1968. At that time, California allowed legal abortions, but only in hospitals. On April 11, she was admitted to Los Angeles County General Hospital with sepsis. Doctors administered penicillin. Stella went into anaphylactic shock; neither she nor the doctors had realized that Stella was allergic to penicillin. Doctors tried to treat both the infection and Stella's reaction to the penicillin, to no avail. She died on April 13. The California Department of Public Health classified Stella's death as both a drug reaction death and a legal abortion death.

Deadly Docs, Pre- and Post-Legalization

Oklahoma, 1935: Husband Fired from Job for Reporting Deadly Abortion Doctor

OkGuy E. Brewer

Doris Jones, a 20-year-old mother of two, died April 11, 1935, from complications of a criminal abortion perpetrated on April 3. Dr. Guy E. Brewer, a 53-year-old bachelor known for his benevolence toward college students, was fingered as the culprit by Doris' husband, Victor. Brewer was a quiet, small-town doctor in Garber, Oklahoma and immensely popular for his benevolence in putting local young men through college. 

Doris' 22-year-old husband, Victor, a grocery clerk, had not known about the abortion until after Doris took ill. He reported the deadly abortion to police, whereupon his employer retaliated by firing him. Victor at least had the company of other bereaved families whose loved ones had died from abortions perpetrated by Brewer. Hermoine Fowler, a 20-year-old coed, died in June of 1934. Ruby Ford died on April 1, 1934. Wanda Lee Gray, age 20, Myrtle Rose, age 21, and Elizabeth Shaw, age 23, evidently died in early June of 1935.

Brewer pleaded guilty to all six deaths but only got a slap on the wrist -- six four-year sentences, to run concurrently.

Texas, 1984: Out on Bail for Murder, Abortion Doc Lets Patient Die

Raymond Showery

Abortionist Raymond E. Showery (pictured) was out on bail appealing a murder conviction when he performed the safe, legal abortion that killed 28-year-old Mickey Apodaca. Mickey, a divorced mother of four, went to Showery's Southside Medical Center in El Paso for an abortion on April 11, 1984. She was about 19 weeks pregnant, and her abortion began some time after 2:00 p.m. Showery's defense team said that Mickey was not bleeding excessively immediately after her abortion, which they say took between 45 minutes to an hour to perform, but that a nurse discovered the hemorrhage, and Mickey was taken into the operating room for a transfusion. However, Showery would not provide Mickey's records to the Grand Jury on the grounds that they might incriminate him. It turns out that during the abortion, Showery had torn a hole in Mickey's uterus and severed a uterine artery. Mickey hemorrhaged for two hours before she was transferred to a hospital, where she died during an emergency hysterectomy. Showery was held pending $1 million dollars bail while awaiting trial for manslaughter in Mickey's death. While he was in prison, local pro-choicers rallied outside with signs asserting that Showery was "a good man" and that he "helps the poor." The fact that he helped Mickey Apodaca straight into an early grave was lost on them.

New Jersey, 1991: Sloppy Anesthesia Practices Lead to Lingering Death for Teen

On April 6, 1991, "Terri," age 34, had an abortion at a doctor's office in the 1100 block of Summit Avenue in Union City, New Jersey. A nurse called the police saying that they needed emergency help for an unconscious patient. According to the police report, the doctor had already left the facility when the nurse called for help. Terri was taken to the hospital and placed on life support. She was pronounced dead on April 11, 1991.

A Mysterious Death in 1912

In the morning of April 10, 1912, 38-year-old Mrs. Grace Peters died at Columbus Hospital in Chicago. She had been taken to the hospital after having taken very ill in her home on April 4.

When asked who had perpetrated the abortion, Grace refused to say. There was some conjecture that she had perpetrated the abortion herself. Given the proliferation of physicians and midwives running abortion clinics in Chicago in that era, Grace could have found one without too much difficulty. Up through the 1950s and 1960s, the vast majority of abortions -- 90% or more -- performed by physicians. 

Most of the abortions done by non-physicians were performed by nurses, midwives, or others with some medical training.  Even lay abortionists with no formal medical training often had physicians providing training, equipment, medications, and emergency follow-up care. The abortions perpetrated by total amateurs, or by the woman herself, were a tiny minority, though, of course, those abortions were the ones most likely to lead to the woman's death.

Mysteries and Doctors' Fatal Handwork

A Mystery Abortion in 1873

Sarah N. Hall, a widow about 31 years of age, died under suspicious circumstances on Sunday, April 6, 1873 at the Grand Central Hotel in Chicago. During her final illness, she was attended by Dr. R. P. Reynolds. Eventually a coroner's jury concluded that Sarah had bled to death from an abortion, but since they were unable to determine how it had happened, they couldn't place blame on Reynolds, who "went on his way rejoicing."

A Doctor Dumps a Body in 1880

On April 7, 1880, a woman's bloody cloak, with clumps of hair clinging to it, was found hanging from a spike protruding from a bridge over the River Rough, just south of the Village of Delray, Michigan, near Detroit. She was eventually identified as 26-year-old Annie Clemens of Bay City, Michigan. Anna, a housekeeper, who had last been seen alive in Detroit on April 2. A coroner's jury investigated and concluded that she had died on April 6 from a botched abortion. An investigation revealed the abortionist to be Dr. William G. Cox, who had a drug store at the corner of Cass and Grand River in Detroit. Henry w. Weaver, "an aged furniture repairer," was also arrested, charged with disposing of Anna's body.

A Typical Chicago Abortion in 1906

Were there really wards full of moribund septic abortion patients in the days before legalization? One physician reported on the septic abortions seen at Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital from 1900 to 1914. This charity hospital, with a policy of never turning away patients, saw 500 septic abortion patients (both induced abortions and miscarriages) during that fifteen-year period. Four of those patients died. I have verified that two of the dead were indeed criminal abortion patients:  Lizzie Orenstein and Bessie Braun.

Bessie, a 22-year-old homemaker and mother of two, died April 6, 1906. Before her death, Both verbally and in a signed statement, Bessie named midwife Julia Gibson as the person who had perpetrated the abortion, for a $5 fee, on March 20. Gibson, who had been at Bessie's bedside during the declaration, shot herself in a suicide attempt. While believing herself to be dying, she confessed to having perpetrated Bessie's abortion. Gibson had previously been indicted for the November 16, 1905 abortion death of 18-year-old  Dorothy Spuhr, who died at County Hospital.

A Flight to a Deadly Doctor in 1969

On April 6, 1969, 35-year-old Mrs. Catherine Barnard of Arvada, Colorado, flew from her home to Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City, and evidently took a taxi to the office of 67-year-old Dr. Virgil Roy Jobe. A cab driver testified that he'd later picked Catherine up at Jobe's office and taken her to the airport. Instead she ended up at South Community Hospital. There, doctors found her gravely ill from a punctured uterus and small intestine. They told her prior to surgery that they needed to know what had happened to her, and she told them Jobe had perpetrated an abortion. Jobe, who was later also charged with performing an abortion on the 17-year-old Oklahoma girl, was convicted in Catherine's death. However, somehow after his conviction the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor negligent homicide charge and Jobe was freed after paying a $1,000 fine.[4]

An Illegal Chicago Death and a Post-Abortion Suicide

1927: A Typical Chicago Abortion

On the morning of April 5, 1927, Arhne Reynolds died at the Chicago office of Dr. Louis Ginsburg from an abortion performed on her there that day. Ginsburg was arrested on April 18, and indicted for felony murder on May 15. Arhne's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

2001: Suicide after Abortion by "Hero" Doctor

On April 5, 2001, Donetta Robben‘s 22-year-old niece "Haley Mason," didn't show up for work. Her friend Rosa drove over to check on her, and her car wasn't there. Rosa called the girl‘s father, Edwin. Had she gone home to visit her family? Edwin later said he just knew that his daughter was dead. He called the Omaha police, and he called his daughter's landlord. They went to the apartment. They found her body. 

The story of how Haley died begins when she fell in love with Todd. She found out she was pregnant and told him. He wanted her to get an abortion. Haley was a student at the University of Nebraska. She worked two jobs to meet her expenses. Unmarried, without much money, and with a disapproving boyfriend, Haley saw abortion as her only option. She made her appointment at the Bellevue, Nebraska practice of Dr. Leroy Carhart. It was late October of 2000.

Carhart's abortion clinic in Nebraska

Carhart walked into the room, clad in a dirty coat and glasses so smeared that Haley‘s friend, who had accompanied her, wondered how he could even see through the lenses. While performing the abortion, Carhart spouted profanities. He told Haley and her friend that he was tired. He‘d been speaking in California the day before, and had just flown into Omaha that morning.

After the abortion, Haley felt violated, as if she‘d been raped. She also experienced continued spotting into January. She'd not been given a follow-up appointment, and didn't know if the bleeding was normal or not. She didn't want to go to another doctor, because she‘d have to tell him about the abortion, and that was just too painful to talk about. The bleeding was a constant reminder of the death of Haley‘s unborn baby.

Haley told few people about the abortion, and didn't tell anybody of her struggle to cope with the emotional pain. She kept telling herself that she‘d done the best thing. But she started punishing herself, and pushed away anybody who tried to love her. She didn't feel that she deserved their love. Haley longed for a knight in shining armor to rescue her from the prison of her grief, but she no longer felt comfortable with men. She had to get drunk to be able to endure sex. And even then, it reminded her of the abortion. Todd came by at early hours, looking for sex. Haley submitted, but her heart wasn't in it. She no longer felt loved. She felt used.

The drinking got worse. Hot baths and quick jogs provided temporary relief from the anguish, but it always returned. Finally, Haley could stand it no more. First, plenty of numbing alcohol. Then, she went into her living room and grabbed a photo of her late mother and maternal grandfather. Next, a bottle of vodka. A bottle of aspirin. An old prescription bottle of Benadryl. Haley washed the drugs down with the vodka, leaving the three bottles next to the photograph.

She went into the bedroom. She put her rosary around her neck. She set an empty holy water bottle on her dresser. She opened her journal to the day of the abortion. She lay down, head on her pillow, looking for the rest she couldn't find any more in living.

Abortion is associated with an increase in all forms of violent death: accident, homicide, and suicide.

Other post-abortion suicides include:

• Carol Cunningham, age 21, who shut herself in her garage, ran her car, and died from the exhaust fumes on August 22, 1986
• Arlin della Cruz, age 19, who hanged herself in the woods near her house on October 15, 1992
• Laura Grunas, age 30, who shot her baby's father and then herself on August 4, 2006
• "Sandra Roe," age 18, who killed herself using an unidentified means on April 18, 1971
• Sandra Kaiser, age 15, who threw herself off an overpass into traffic on November 19, 1984
• Stacy Zallie, age 20, who committed suicide on October 1, 2002

Different Eras Just as Dead

Criminal in Chicago: 1907

On April 4, 1907, Mrs. Norma Beck, age 32, died at Lakeside Hospital in Chicago from septic peritonitis caused by a criminal abortion perpetrated at the office of Dr. Thomas J Balhatchett on March 24. Dr. James W. Walker and Dr. H. N. Richter had attended Normal at the hospital, and relayed Norma's deathbed statement to police. She directly implicated Balhatchett. Some of her relatives and friends also spoke to the police, fingering Balhatchett. Balhollchett was held by the coroner's jury and indicted, but there is no record that the case went to trial.

Norma's abortion was usual in that it was performed by a physician. The assertion by abortion-rights organizations is that before legalization, the world of abortion was a world of rusty coathangers and untrained quacks is an insult to the abortion-minded women of yesteryear. It presumes that they were all so mentally unhinged or utterly mindless. The vast majority sought out professionals of the same caliber they'd go to for any other gynecological or obstetric issue.

Safe and Legal in Alabama: 1985

Mary Bradley, a 41-year-old mother of four, underwent a safe, legal 20-week abortion performed Dr. George Wayne Patterson in March of 1985. Because of severe bleeding, she was admitted to a hospital and had a total hysterectomy on March 28. Mary developed blood clotting and respiratory difficulties, and finally died on April 4, 1985. According to official documents, another Alabama woman, Janyth Caldwell, died after an abortion performed by Patterson. 

Patterson himself also suffered an early death at somebody else's hands. He was gunned down outside a pornography theater in an apparent gangland slaying. The Feminist Majority Foundation, and //Revolutionary Worker// lament the gangland shooting of an abortionist, while ignoring the fact that he himself had evidently killed two women, underscores where the abortion lobby's priorities are.

Unknown, Midwife, Doctor

Chicago: 1912, 1919 and 1928

On April 2, 1912, 25-year-old homemaker Elizabeth Jorgeson died from an abortion perpetrated that day by Katie Sauer, whose profession is not given. Sauer was held by the Coroner's Jury and indicted by a Grand Jury on November 30. The case never went to trial. An article in the Chicago Inter-Ocean from the year before Elizabeth's death identifies a Chicago woman named Katie Sauer as a midwife. I am working to verify if the midwife and the abortionist are the same person. 

On April 3, 1919, 22-year-old homemaker Marya Kizior, a native of Poland, died at Chicago's Jefferson Park Hospital from an abortion perpetrated by an unknown suspect. Since most Chicago abortions of that era were perpetrated by either doctors or midwives, there is a strong likelihood that Marya's abortionist was a medical professional.

On April 3, 1928, 30-year-old homemaker Stefania Kwit, a native of Poland, died from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day by 45-year-old midwife Pauline Majerczyk. On May 3, Mauerczyk was held by the coroner for murder by abortion, and indicted for felony murder on May 15. Evidently she remained free, because she is still listed as a midwife living in Chicago in the 1930 Federal census. 

One of a String of Abortion Deaths, Oklahoma City, 1932

Ethel Hestland, age 30, died on April 3, 1932, in the Oklahoma City area from a criminal abortion. Her death certificate was signed by Dr. Richard E. Thacker. Thacker (pictured) had been identified as responsible for a string of other abortion deaths in a very short stretch of time, including Marie Epperson, Isobel F. Ferguson, Ruth Hall, Lennis May Roach,Nancy Joe Lee,and Robbie Lou Thompson.

1912: A Typical Chicago Abortion Death

On April 2, 1912, 25-year-old homemaker Elizabeth Jorgeson died from an abortion perpetrated that day by Katie Sauer, whose profession is not given. Sauer was held by the Coroner's Jury and indicted by a Grand Jury on November 30. The case never went to trial.

An article in the Chicago Inter-Ocean from the year before Elizabeth's death identifies a Chicago woman named Katie Sauer as a midwife. I am working to verify if the midwife and the abortionist are the same person. If the Katie Sauer implicated in Elizabeth's death is indeed this midwife, that would be typical. Abortions in Chicago in that era were most often perpetrated by either doctors or midwives.

Fatal Physicians and One Midwife

Today's anniversaries are all very typical of criminal abortions of their times and places.

1904: A Doctor's Work in a Sanitarium in Maine

On the morning of April 1, 1904, a body was hastily shipped from Old Orchard Sanitarium, aka Eastman's Women Sanitarium (pictured), and a death certificate was filed in the town clerk's office by Dr. Charles A Eastman, stating that the deceased was 24-year-old Edith McIntyre, a schoolteacher from Boothbay Harbor, Maine. She had died at the sanitarium at 3:00 that morning. The body, The cause of the death was given as gastritis resulting from the taking of oxalic acid salts by the deceased sometime in February. Edith had been at the sanitarium for two weeks. After Edith was buried, the suspicious circumstances led to an investigation. Edith's body was exhumed and an autopsy showed that she had died from an abortion. Eastman was traced to Lowell, MA, where he was arrested. In the mean time, police investigated his sanitarium.

Eastman fled, but was located and arraigned on a murder charge, to which he plead not guilty. The prosecution presented evidence that Eastman had performed an abortion on Edith some time in March, and that she developed septicemia and died as a result. On July 12, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter.

1911: A Midwife's Work in Chicago
On April 1, 1911, 23-year-old Chicago homemaker Annie Murphy died from an abortion perpetrated by a midwife (or possibly obstetrician) named Carolina Adams. Adams, age about 63, was held by the Coroner's Jury but the case never went to trial.

1921: A Doctor's Work in New York City

On March 29, 1921, 57-year-old Dr. Simeon B. Minden performed an abortion in his New York City office on 32-year-old Mrs. Catherine Riga. Catherine died three days later at Lincoln Hospital. It took only two days for his trial, which ended in a conviction. Minden collapsed upon hearing the verdict. A New York Times note card on Ancestry.com indicates that Minden was granted a new trial on May 18, 1922, and was pardoned by the governor after serving one year and four months of a 2.5 to 10-year sentence in Sing-Sing on December 12, 1924.

1934-1935: A Doctor's Work in Oklahoma

Dr. Guy E. Brewer

Ruby Luella Ford, a homemaker about 27 years of age, died on April 1, 1934, 11 days after an abortion committed on March 20 "at the combination bachelor dwelling and office" of Dr. Guy E. Brewer, a beloved philanthropist in the small town of Graber, Oklahoma who had never been in any trouble with the law.  Brewer had graduated from the University of Louisville in 1906 and had been practicing medicine in Garber for 21 of the 29 years he had been a physician. He supported young men during their university studies, maintaining houses for them to live in. Those he had educated over the years rushed immediately to his defense. Ruby was one of a sudden string of abortion deaths attributed to Brewer. Hermoine Fowler, a 20-year-old coed, died in June of 1934, nine days after an abortion perpetrated by Brewer. Doris Jones, a 20-year-old mother of two, died April 11, 1935.Wanda Lee Gray, age 20, Myrtle Rose, age 21, and Elizabeth Shaw, 23, of Roxanna, andDoris Jones evidently died early in 1935. Brewer was sentenced to six four-year sentences, to run concurrently, for the six abortion deaths.

From Chicago to New York, Criminal and Legal

Criminal in Chicago

On March 29, 1912, 36-year-old homemaker Mary Abrams died from an abortion perpetrated by Mary D. Lunnemeyer that day. Lunnemeyer's profession is identified only as "abortion provider", so it's likely that, unlike the majority of abortion perpetrators in that time and place, she was a lay abortionist rather than a physician or a midwife. She was arrested March 29 and held to a Grand Jury, but the case never went to trial.

On March 29, 1924, 30-year-old Etta Marcus died at Chicago's Francis Willard Hospital (pictured) from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day. The coroner concluded that Dr. William J. Wick had performed the fatal abortion at his office. However, on April 10, Wick was acquitted for reasons I have been unable to determine. Abortions in Chicago in that era were typically perpetrated by either doctors or midwives.

From Safe and Legal to a Respirator in a Nursing Home

Venus Ortiz

Venus Ortiz died in a nursing from lingering abortion complications at age 29 on December 16, 1998. The abortion had been performed five years earlier by Dr. Leiber at Eastern Women's Center in New York, NY and she had remained in a vegetative state, in need of a respirator, until her death. A suit filed by her survivors alleged that there was negligence in administering anesthesia to Venus, and failure to establish an airway. Brevital, fentanyl, and midazolam were administered in dosages and manners contrary to standards of practice, causing Venus to suffer a synergistic reaction. Eastern's staff failed to promptly diagnose and attend to cardio-pulmonary arrest. 

Two other patients, Dawn Ravenelle and Dawn Mack, also died of complications of abortions done at Eastern Women's Center.

Illegal in 1942, Safe and Legal in 1975 and 2014

Influential Doc Named on Deathbed, Acquitted in Court

On March 28, 1942, 19-year-old Cleo Moore died at New Rochelle Hospital in New York from peritonitis from an illegal abortion. Before her death she changed her story and said that Dr. Frank F. Marino had performed the fatal abortion. According to Cleo's roommate, Alice Petersen, Cleo met a man through her work, and discovered that she was pregnant in January. On March 5, Alice said, Cleo visited Marino to arrange an abortion, which he performed at his home office on March 9. By March 11, Cleo was ill and summoned Marino, who sent her to the hospital with instructions not to inform anyone that he had operated on her. Alice also said that Dr. Marino's wife told her to protect her husband, lest "you and Miss Moore...go to prison."

Marino testified that he had examined Cleo on March 5, refused the requested abortion, and did not hear from Cleo again until the 11th, when he was summoned to her home and sent her to the hospital without reporting the abortion. Marino, who had been a member of the County Board of Supervisors, the New Rochelle Board of Education, and the New Rochelle Zoning Board of Appeals, was also a golfing buddy of the prosecutor of the case. Marino was acquitted.

Chicago: One Victim of "The Abortion Profiteers"

On March 25, 1975, 18-year-old Sharon Floyd went to Associated Concern in Chicago for a safe and legal abortion. Three days later, she died of pelvic infection and blood poisoning. >On July 1, 1975, public health officials closed Associated Concern, which was one of the abortion mills featured in the Chicago Sun-Times "Abortion Profiteers" series.

2014: Dead Because of an Elevator

Twenty-two-year-old Lakisha Wilson went to Preterm Abortion Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio on March 21, 2014. She was 19.4 weeks pregnant. After the abortion, she began bleeding heavily due to uterine atony (her uterus wasn't contracting and stopping her from bleeding from where the placenta had been attached). 

The procedure rooms at Preterm are on the third floor of the building. When emergency medical services arrived, the elevator was malfunctioning. They were delayed in getting the gurney to Lakisha due to this problem. When they entered the room, where Lakisha still lay on the abortion table with her legs in the stirrups, they found her abortionist, Dr. Lisa Perriera, trying to resuscitate her with a pediatric-sized Ambu-Bag. 

The medics were able to get Lakisha's heart going but were hampered in their further resuscitation efforts because the elevator was too small to properly accommodate the gurney; Lakisha had to be taken into the elevator in a seated position that did not provide adequate access to her airway. Several hours after the bleeding started, she was finally taken to Chase University Medical Center,where she was placed on life support and pronounced dead on March 28.

2014: Elevator and Ambu-Bag Both Too Small. Patient Dies

Abortion-rights groups have been fighting to halt laws that would treat abortion clinics like ambulatory surgical centers. The abortion lobby insists that regulations such as size of doorways and hallways and elevators are just nit-picky and have nothing to do with women's well-being. What they don't want you to know is why these size requirements are included in ambulatory surgery center regulations. If a patient is having a life-threatening emergency, EMS workers need to be able to get the patient onto a gurney and perform resuscitation efforts while moving the patient from the procedure room into the ambulance.

On this date in 2014, 22-year-old Lakisha Wilsondied because a clinic was not laid out to allow easy access by an ambulance gurney.

Lakisha Wilson

Operation Rescue obtained the autopsy report . Lakisha went to Preterm Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio on March 21, 2014. She was 19.4 weeks pregnant. Further investigation by Operation Rescuereveals further details on the pathetic excuse for treatment Lakisha received at the clinic, as well as how the substandard conditions in the clinic contributed to Lakisha's death. After the safe, legal abortion, she began bleeding heavily because her uterus had become soft (atony). 

The procedure rooms at Preterm are on the third floor of the building. When emergency medical services arrived, the elevator was malfunctioning. They were delayed in getting the gurney to Lakisha due to this problem. When they entered the room, where Lakisha still lay on the abortion table with her legs in the stirrups, they found her abortionist, Dr. Lisa Perriera, trying to resuscitate her with a pediatric-sized Ambu-Bag. The IV for administering medications had been torn loose somehow by clinic staff. 

EMS began working to revive Lakisha, who had no pulse and was not breathing. The medics were able to get her heart going but were hampered in their further resuscitation efforts because the elevator was too small to properly accommodate the gurney; Lakisha had to be taken into the elevator in a seated position that did not provide adequate access to her airway. Several house later she was finally taken to Chase University Medical Center,where she was placed on life support and pronounced dead on March 28.

Here is video, with 911 audio, of an ambulance call two years before Lakisha's death. This patient, like Lakisha, was hemorrhaging due to uterine atony. In this patient's case, the elevator wasn't working at all. Fortunately, she survived.