June 6, 1984: What Killed Sheila?

A chronic asthma patient, 27-year-old Sheila Hebert went to Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge for an 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 asthmatic 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; any minor discrepancies are probably just errors in reporting. "Jane Doe" was 27 years old. 

The suit was filed on behalf of her 10-year-old motherless son, "Minor A". Jane was the couple's only daughter. Glidden performed the abortion at Delta on June 5, 1984. Afterward, she was "placed in a post-operative room where she developed an acute asthma condition and expired." Emergency personnel arrived within 3 minutes of getting the call, but found the young woman blue, cool, and essentially lifeless. Efforts to revive her, both at Delta and at the ICU proved unsuccessful. 

The suit charged Glidden and Delta staff with failure to monitor the patient in recovery, failing to react properly when her condition was discovered, failing to call 911 promptly, and failing to have adequate emergency equipment available. 

Ingar Weber would die after an abortion at Delta in January of 1990.

Just to refine the quality of the clinic in question, Delta was sued by a federal attorney in 1989 for illegally dispensing controlled substances.  It was also owned by Richardson Glidden -- the same National Abortion Federation member who had Kermit Gosnell moonlighting at his clinic in Delaware.

Watch "Just a Fluke?" on YouTube.

Sources:

• East Baton Rouge Parish District Court Case No. 289518
• "B.R. Abortion Clinic Sued By Woman's Son, Parents," The Town Talk, June 9, 1985
• "La. abortion clinic target," St. Mary and Franklin Banner Tribune, July 12, 1989