Betty Gail Hines, a Tennessee native, was 21 years old when she was checked into Doctors Hospital in Los Angeles, California for an abortion to be performed by Dr. A. Mitchell on July 19, 1971. Mitchell had been her physician for three or four years. Betty was eight weeks pregnant.
There didn't seem to be anything wrong during the procedure. Betty was transferred to the recovery room, when she suddenly went into cardio-respiratory arrest.
Mitchell theorized that perhaps Betty had died because of a bad vial of Innovar, because the next patient who was injected from that vial also went into cardiac arrest but was successfully resuscitated.
Betty's autopsy, however, found no trace of Innovar in her system. A toxicology check was also done on the vial of medication, and found nothing wrong with the Innovar.
Betty's death was attributed to massive intravascular sickling due to underlying sickle cell disorder.
Other women who died of sickle cell crisis triggered by abortion include Margaret Davis and Sheryl Roe.
Sources: Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Report # 71-7752
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