1984: First of two known patient deaths at Delta

A chronic ashtma patient, 27-year-old Sheila Hebert went to Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge for a safe and legal abortion on June 6, 1984. Shortly after the abortion, Sheila complained of chest pains and difficulty breathing. She lost consciousness, and staff injected her with adrenaline, but were unable to revive her. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died. The coroner attributed the death to "cardiorespiratory arrest due to acute ashtmatic bronchitis" after "surgical termination of pregnancy.

A suit filed anonymously against Richardson Glidden and Delta Women's Clinic raised these issues in the death of a patient in 1984. The suit and news article therefore probably describe the same case.

In 1990, Ingar Weber died after an abortion at Delta.

Delta's abortionist, James Whitmore III, lost his license to practice medicine in 2002. The board had found Whitmore guilty of disregarding basic santitation, being rude to patients, and failing to provide proper care to a woman whose uterus he had perforated during an abortion. The woman ended up needing a hysterectomy. The board found that Whitmore used improperly sterilized equipment, reused single-use items, and let tissue float in the sterilizing solution. Whitmore had previously been on probation for three years beginning in 1992, after his actions led to the death of one post-term infant and the permanent injury of a pre-term infant.

To learn more about this fairly seedy abortion mill -- excuse me, provider of vital women's reproductive health care services -- read this.