"Denise" was 22 years old when radiologist Erma Roe 353 diagnosed her as 9 weeks pregnant. Roe performed two suction procedures on Denise on July 10, 1982. Roe noted only "scant tissue," but still sent Denise home. On July 22, Denise returned to report bleeding, pain, and passing clots. Roe reviewed the pathology report, which showed no products of conception. She performed a pelvic exam and told Denise that she wasn't pregnant. Instead she diagnosed a urinary tract infection and sent her patient home with antibiotics. On September 28, Denise went to the hospital. She was in active labor in a breech position, with a fetal foot protruding through her cervix. She gave birth to a 13 1/2 ounce baby boy who died an hour later. Denise underwent an emergency D&C, lost a liter of blood, and was hospitalized for three days. She suffered depression, recurring nightmares, and two subsequent miscarriages. (Medical Malpractice Verdicts, Settlements, and Experts, August 1993, November 1993; Illinois Appellate Court, 1st District, 6th Division, Case No. 1-91-783; Cook County Illinois Circuit Court Case No. 84L 13308; Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, June 15 and 16, 1990; Peoria Star-Journal, August 9, 1990)
RealChoice
Preparing for a Post-Roe America
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
September 27, 2012: Death After Medical Instrument is Left in Woman's Body
I don't like to dehumanize women by just using initials, so the woman identified in medical board documents as "S.H." will be called "Shirelle."
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Frank Rodriguez |
It's interesting to note that the medical board doesn't mention Shirelle's death in the disciplinary documents. Operation Rescue discovered the death on a malpractice payout reporting form.
Evidently the insurance payout was done quietly, since I have not been able to find any newspaper coverage of Shirelle's death.
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
September 26, 1974: The Death of Louise's Baby
Louise A. was 20 years old when in 1974 when her periods stopped. She went to her hometown doctor's office, where a nurse told her that she wasn't pregnant. The nurse was mistaken. This mistake delayed confirmation that Louise was indeed pregnant. She went to Dr. Jesse Floyd's office in July of 1974.
Floyd determined that she was past the first trimester of her pregnancy. Under South Carolina law of the time, those later abortions had to be performed in a hospital It took Louise a while to pull together the $450 abortion fee.
Floyd admitted her to Richland Memorial Hospital. On September 4, he injected her with prostaglandin to cause an abortion.
On September 6, Louise said, "I started having real bad labor pains again and finally my baby was born. I called the nurse." Several nurses, including the head nurse, came into the room, Louise said, and the head nurse asked her if she had known that "the baby was a seven-month baby." Louise said no.
"One of the nurses said that the baby was alive. They took the baby out of the room. He never did cry, he just made some kind of a noise."
The first doctor summoned to the abortion ward was a young resident, who had been paged from the cafeteria. As the Inquirer said, "She did not hesitate. On detecting a heartbeat of 100, she clamped and severed the umbilical cord and had the baby sent to the hospital's intensive care unit."
"It was a shock, a totally unique emergency situation, very upsetting to all of us," the woman, ty then a practicing physician in California. "Some people have disagreed with me [about ordering intensive care for an abortion live birth] but that seems to me the only way you can go."
"It's like watching a drowning. You act. You don't have the luxury of calling around and consulting. You institute life-preserving measures first and decide about viability later on."
At first the baby's condition seemed to be improving. By the time he was ten days old he was prognosed as having a 50% chance of survival.
Louise, who never saw the baby, checked out of the hospital on September 8. "I kept calling this nurse," she said in a deposition. "I would call ... and get information from them about the baby, and they told me he was doing fine. They told me he had picked up two or three pounds. I started going to school, and one afternoon I called them and they told me the baby had died, but no one told me the cause of his death."
The baby had developed a tear in his small intestine and died of that and other complications on September 26, just 20 days old.
Prosecutors were faced with a difficult case. Floyd himself never had any contact with the baby, nor was he involved in making decisions about the child's care. However, it struck them as obvious that by proceeding with an abortion was illegal in that it was done outside a hospital after the first trimester, Floyd had taken action leading to the baby's death. Floyd was charged with both murder and criminal abortion, but eventually the abortion-rights arguments won out. Floyd could claim not knowing that the baby had been past viability, and could even assert that under Roe and Doe, the state had no business meddling in his decision to perform an abortion even after viability. The charges were dropped.
Monday, September 18, 2023
September 18, 1979: Happy Birthday, Joshua Vandervelden
The next case is of Joshua Vandervelden, whose case is easy to Google. His mother, Linda Noie, was between six and eight weeks pregnant when she went to Fox Valley Reproductive Health Care on January 12, 1979. Dr. Benjamin Victoria (John Roe 740) performed the abortion. Linda was discharged under the impression that the abortion had been successful. It had not. On September 18, Linda was in labor but there were signs of fetal distress so the baby that had survived the abortion attempt was delivered via C-section. He was named Joshua. He was placed on a respirator and hospitalized for two weeks prior to discharge. His mother went public with her story and became a prolife activist. (Milwaukee Journal, November 1, 1993)
September 18, 1979: Happy Birthday, Joshua Vandervelden
A lawsuit filed suit on behalf of Joshua Vandervelden alleged that Dr. Benjamin Victoria attempted to perform an abortion on Linda Moie on January 12, 1979, at Fox Valley Reproductive Health Care Center in Wisconsin. The abortion injured but did not kill the fetus (Joshua), who was born September 18, 1979. Joshua spent two weeks on a respirator. The suit was struck down by the court on the grounds that Linda consented to the abortion. Linda appealed, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's refusal to hear the case.
According to this site (translation by Babelfish), Joshua's mother became prolife after the birth of her son, and together they picket the clinic where the attempt on Joshua's life was made.September 18, 1979: Happy Birthday Abortion Survivor Joshua Vandervelden
Linda Noie was between six and eight weeks pregnant when she went to Fox Valley Reproductive Health Care on January 10, 1979 to get information about abortion. She was accompanied by the baby's father, Brian Rusch. The couple agreed to go ahead with an abortion and scheduled it for January 12.
They returned on the 12th, and Linda did all of the consent paperwork. Several hours later, Dr. Benjamin Victoria performed the abortion. Linda was discharged from Fox Valley Reproductive Health Care under the impression that the abortion had been successful.
It had not.
On September 18, Linda was in labor but there were signs of fetal distress so the baby that had survived the abortion attempt was delivered via C-section. He was named Joshua. He was placed on a respirator and hospitalized for two weeks prior to discharge.
Joshua suffered hearing loss in his left ear as well as asymmetry in the lateral ventricles of his brain. However, the parties disagreed as to whether the abortion was the cause.
I'm unclear as to why Joshua's surname is Vandervelden, but such it is.
A suit was filed on Joshua's behalf, and on March 29, 1991 the doctor was found to have committed a battery on Joshua while he was in the womb. The award for damages was $25,000 for future medical expenses, $300,000 for loss of earning capacity, and $800,000 for pain, suffering, and disability. The suit was struck down by the court on the grounds that Linda consented to the abortion. Linda appealed, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's refusal to hear the case. You can find all the legal arguments at the Justia.com page about the case.
According to this site (translation below by Google Translate), Joshua's mother became prolife after the birth of her son, and together they picket the clinic where the attempt on Joshua's life was made.
Their son survived the abortion and now they both protest in front of the clinic where he had been sentenced to die.
When Linda Noie pickets the abortion clinic next door to her house, she holds up a sign that reads, "We can't forget aborted children!" And certainly she Linda cannot forget her own son, whom she nearly miscarried: Joshua is a constant memory.
On January 12, 1979, Joshua was the target of an abortion at a clinic in the State of Wisconsin, USA. But God had other plans for him. The abortionist failed in his attempt to perform the abortion. Now Joshua joins his mother in picketing the very clinic where he had previously been sentenced to die.
Through this traumatic experience, Linda converted to a pro-life stance. When told that the house next to the abortion clinic was available, Linda asked God for guidance, and she felt the Lord say, "That's where I want you to live." Linda and Joshua moved in and have been displaying a sign ever since that says, "We Can't Forget Aborted Children"!
Source: First Congress of Abortion Holocaust Survivors, April 29-May 3, 1992, in Ottawa, Canada, organized by Human Life International.
Sunday, September 17, 2023
September 17, 1937: Doctor Implicated in Schoolgirl's Death
On June 17, 1937, 16-year-old Riverside High schoolgirl Phyllis Brown was attacked and raped by an acquaintance near Villa Park in Chicago. She kept the assault a secret from her parents even after learning of the resulting pregnancy. Instead, she confided in her friend, 17-year-old Lillian Pernicka.
Lillian (pictured, left) told Phyllis that she herself had undergone an abortion on March 8 at the hands of Dr. Clarence Harold Edmunds in Oak Park. The girls went to Edmunds's office in Oak Park on September 1. There, Edmunds performed an abortion.When Phyllis took ill afterwards, her parents summoned Dr. S. A. Sugar. He examined her on September 13 and admitted her to Grant Hospital. He believed that she might be suffering from abortion complications so he notified the police.
On September 18, Edmunds, age 48, and his secretary, Marie Trampush, age 27, were arrested. Edwards was released on $25,000 bond and Trampush on $3,000.
Phyllis's father, Samuel, put all the blame on the boy who had raped his daughter. "You don't need police to run down the boy," he said at the inquest. "He murdered my daughter and wherever he is, I'll find him and take care of him in my own way."
Both Edmunds and Trampush (pictured, right) denied having any knowledge of an abortion performed on Phyllis.Edwards was originally licensed in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1913. He moved to North Dakota and practiced there before relocating first to Florida and then to Oak Park, where he set up practice in 1931.
The case had originally been struck off because there were legal issues with Phyllis's dying declaration. The charges were filed again and both Edmunds and Trampush were indicted. However, in January of 1938 the charges were dropped for reasons I've been unable to determine.
Sources:
- "Doctor Charged With Murder in Abortion Death," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 18, 1937
- "Chicago Physician is Held in Death of School Girl," Journal Gazette, September 18, 1937
- "Woman Charged With Murder in Abortion Death," Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1937
- "Charge Doctor with Murder," Cicero (IL) Life, October 10, 1937
- "Abortion Death is Reconsidered; Doctor Indicted," Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1937
- "Arraign Doctor and His Secretary After Death by Abortion," Chicago Daily Tribune, November 9, 1937
- "Free Doctor, Aide in Death Of Girl, 16," Berwyn Life, January 12, 1938
Saturday, September 16, 2023
September 16, 1988: The Abortion Death That Wasn't
Abortion Advocates Still Peddle Misleading Story on Becky Bell's Death
Here's the email I sent:
Dear Mr. Fox:Clinic Quotes on Becky Bell.
I am highly disappointed to see that people are still believing the lies that the abortion lobby has generated about Becky Bell.
I have abstracted thousands of abortion malpractice cases and over a hundred autopsy reports on women and girls who have died from abortion complications. Becky Bell's autopsy report, which I have also read, clearly shows no signs whatsoever of post-abortion infection. What it shows is pneumonia, the same strain that killed Muppets creator Jim Henson.
Even Becky's parents admitted that she was still pregnant when they brought her to the hospital: the doctor told them he wasn't sure the baby would survive. Becky's best friend told a Reuter's reporter that Becky was still considering running away to a home for unwed mothers in California shortly before her death. Becky had brochures for that home in her purse when she died.
Becky's grief-stricken parents latched onto the word "abortion" on her autopsy report, evidently not realizing that this is the medical term for a miscarriage. Their confusion is understandable. That the abortion lobby decided to capitalize on their confusion is deplorable. That the news media never question the abortion lobby is inexcusable.
Meanwhile you continue to ignore teens who died of secret abortions. Dawn Ravenelle was 13 years old when her mother got a call to come to St. Luke's hospital, where Dawn was "fighting for her life". Erica Richardson's aunt arranged a secret abortion that left the girl dead from an embolism. Jammie Garcia probably would have survived the complications of her abortion had she not kept it a secret, thus delaying medical care until it was too late. Sandra Kaiser went into a terrible depression after her clandestine abortion and ended up committing suicide by throwing herself off an overpass into traffic. Tamiia Russell was brought for a secret abortion by the sister of the 24-year-old man who had been sexually abusing her. Why are these girls' deaths not newsworthy?
Becky Bell, who Planned Parenthood still drags out periodically, died in 1988 from an abortion that only took place in the heads of abortion profiteers. That same year, 17-year-old Teresa Causey died of an actual abortion that really did take place -- legally. Denise Montoya, age 15, met the same fate. As did Katrina Poole, age 16. And since then, safe and legal abortion has claimed the lives of other underage girls, including these that I know of:
1989: Glenna Jean Fox, age 17; Erica Richardson, age 16
1990: Sophie McCoy, age 17
1991: Latachie Veal, age 17
1992: Deanna Bell, age 13
1994: Jammie Garcia, age 15; Sara Niebel, age 15
1997: Maureen Espinoza, age 16
2004: Tamiia Russell, age 15
Why is it totally unacceptable for an underage girl to die from an illegal abortion that never happened, but a big fat yawn when girls die from abortions that they'd been told were perfectly safe?
Why the double standard?
I can understand why the abortion lobby has the attitude that Teresa, Denise, Katrina, Glenna, and the other girls are just so much grist for the abortion mill. But what excuse does City Beat have?
Christina Dunigan
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Friday, September 15, 2023
September 15, 1971: Teen Sent Home With Mangled Fetus in Womb
Eighteen-year-old Janet Foster underwent an abortion at the hands of Richard Neal at Valley Doctors; Hospital in North Hollywood, California on September 11, 1971. Janet's abortion had been a "therapeutic" abortion approved by the hospital committee, as was required at the time. Neal reported that he'd estimated the pregnancy at 12 weeks and performed what he thought was an uneventful suction abortion.