The Guitierrez Abortion: A wretched Christmas

Carolina Gutierrez, only twenty years old, remained on a respirator in an intensive care unit of a Miami hospital over Christmas of 1995. She had been hospitalized since December 21, when her family had called an ambulance in their alarm over her difficulty breathing. She had arrived at the emergency room already in septic shock.

Two days of trying to contact Maber Medical Center, where Carolina had undergone an abortion on the 19th, over her husbands objections, had yielded no help. The young mother, who had no medical insurance, had been suffering from fever and pain since the evening of the 19th.

Doctors at the hospital had performed an emergency hysterectomy, trying to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus, but the sepsis raged on.

Carolina spent Christmas on a respirator, sepsis raging through her body. Her two children spent most of their time in the care of relatives as their stepfather, Jose Linarte, spent as much time as he could by Carolina's side, waiting and praying.

The ICU staff cared as best they could for their critically-ill patient, but the sepsis was getting worse instead of better.