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Thursday, December 01, 2005

Tiller comes out smelling like roses after patient death

In a disgusting but not unanticipated show of partisan loyalty, the Kansas medical board concluded that George "The Killer" Tiller was not at fault in the death of a developmenally-disabled teen brought to his late-term facility for a 28-week abortion.

Christin Gilbert died January 13, 2005, several days into a multi-day abortion. How they could find no wrong when Kansas law only allows post-viability abortions for "health" reasons is a mystery. The board indicated that Tiller had determined that continuing the pregnancy would "cause substantial and permanent impairment of a major bodily function,' but it's difficult to understand why, if Christin was in such shape that the pregnancy needed to be terminated, she didn't undergo an induction or an emergency c-section in a local hospital.

According to Operation Rescue, Christin was reported to have been in good health prior to the abortion. Even the autopsy report says that she needed IV fluids, but after treating her Tiller sent her back to her hotel rather than hospitalize her. Her condition deteriorated and she died the following day.

Christin's autopsy report reveals no medical reason why an abortion would supposedly be "necessary." This was an elective third-trimester abortion, being performed in an outpatient setting, and continued in an outpatient setting even after the patient began to show complications.

This is totally, totally inexcusable. I'm outraged beyond words. What bought the Board off, I wonder, money or politics?

Oh -- her parents didn't complain to the medical board, and evidently aren't going to sue. They requested no aggressive care for Christin after she was brought to the hospital, only "comfort care."

I'm biting my tongue about that. And about how Christin arrived at the morgue minus her eyes, which had been donated.

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