A bad inspection that authorities chose not to learn from

Dayton Women's Health Services had been caught operating without a license in 1999. It was inspected on October 27, 1999, to see if a license should be granted. Inspectors found rusty instruments, improperly-marked medications, and a failure to follow sterile technique. The clinic administrators were told they'd have to correct the problems to get a license. The clinic got the license after getting a waiver regarding follow-up care for patients.

Evidently the presumption was made that a place that had rusty instruments could be trusted to clean up their act.

Just short of a year later, on October 11, 2000, Detroit police were called a private residence to investigate the report of an unresponsive 21-year-old woman. The young woman was L'Echelle R. Head. She was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:45 p.m. Preliminary reports were that she likely suffered some sort of embolism after an abortion at none other than Dayton Women's Health Services.