Lime 5: Hemorrhage

As we look at the hemorrhage cases from Lime 5, keep in mind that the Centers for Disease Control published back in 1983, "Deaths from hemorrhage associated with legal induced abortion should not occur." In every hemorrhage death they investigated, "Lack of adequate postoperative monitoring or treatment of hemorrhagic shock" was a factor. 

Deaths I've already covered

Twila Coulter

Twila Coulter, age 21, traveled from her home in Colorado to a California hospital for a safe and legal abortion in November of 1972. After the abortion, her blood pressure fell and she became cyanotic. She bled profusely from IV sites and from her vagina. Staff gave her oxygen and three units of blood then transferred her to a hospital. Staff there found her comatose and still hemorrhaging. They performed a D&C to removed retained tissue, repaired injuries to her uterus, and transferred Twila to the ICU, where she died on the morning of November 15.

Dr. T.R. Mason Howard

Dorothy Brown, age 37, underwent an abortion at Dr. T.R.M. Howard's Friendship Medical Clinic (Acme Reproductive Services 13) in Chicago on August 16, 1974. Within hours, she was dead at a nearby hospital. Her death was attributed to "shock related to hemorrhagic necrosis of uterus." Julia Rogers and Evelyn Dudley also died after abortions at Friendship Medical Center.

On May 4, 1976, 29-year-old Maria Gomez underwent a vacuum abortion at Atlantic Family Medical Clinic (Acme Reproductive Services 15) in Los Angeles County. Within an hour and a half she had bled to death. The coroner report indicates that Dr. John Blodgett claimed that Maria must have bled to death from an "old" cervical cut. The autopsy found otherwise. Maria's lacerated and gashed uterus still contained the severed head of her unborn baby, and more than a quart of blood was pooled in her abdomen. Maria's lacerations had not been sutured, but her vagina had been packed with gauze. 

Mary Paredez was 26 years old when she underwent an abortion at San Jose Hospital on April 19, 1977. During the procedure, Mary's uterus was perforated. She began to hemorrhage. Less than seven hours later, she was dead. The autopsy found 2500 cc of blood in Mary's abdomen. (California Death Certificate No. 77-051142; Santa Clara County (CA) Autopsy Report No. CA77-364)

Louchrisser Jackson, a 23-year-old married homemaker and mother of five, was 12 weeks pregnant when she went to Dr. Robert L. Gardner for a safe and legal abortion at Reproductive Services in Dallas on November 4, 1977. Louchrisser began hemorrhaging. Gardner attempted to give her a transfusion with his own blood -- which turned out to be an incompatible type. When the ambulance crew arrived, Louchrisser had gone into cardiac arrest. She was transferred to Oak Cliff Medical and Surgical Hospital, where she died that day. Gardner requested that the body be released without an inquiry. Another physician at the hospital learned of the case and requested an inquiry.  The autopsy found massive hemorrhage of at least two liters of blood, and a "1.8 x 2 cm. ragged perforation in the right lateral wall just above the internal os of the cervical canal. This perforation communicates freely with the retroperitoneal space on the right side. The endometrial surface of the uterus is ragged and hemorrhagic." Death was attributed to "massive retroperitoneal hemorrhage due to perforation of the uterus during a therapeutic abortion." (Dallas Times Herald June 20, 1978; Dallas Morning News June 20, 1978, June 23, 1978, and July 28, 1978; Texas Autopsy Report No. 2262-77-1103)

Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Suddeth underwent an abortion by Frank Robinson (John Roe 809) on June 30, 1982. After leaving the facility, Jennifer bled through two pairs of sweat pants, two blankets, and a towel. When Jennifer went into convulsions, her boyfriend called an ambulance. Paramedics arrived at the home to find Jennifer already dead. Police charged Robinson for involuntary manslaughter in Jennifer's death. Although Robinson beat the rap, largely due to how poorly the police handled the investigation, the state of California nevertheless counted Jennifer's death as due to illegal abortion.

  Dr. Robert Crist   

Latachie Veal was 17 when she went to Houston's West Loop Clinic on November 2, 1991. There, National Abortion Federation star Dr. Robert Dale Crist (John Roe 326) performed her second-trimester abortion. She bled heavily after the abortion and begged staff for help. Staff assured her that her symptoms were normal and sent her home. She stopped breathing that evening. Her sister performed CPR while her brother-in-law called an ambulance. Latachie was pronounced dead from hemorrhage on arrival at the emergency room. Although Latachie's death was reported to the Texas Department of Health, and Crist discussed it at a National Abortion Federation event attended by CDC staff the following year, no patient of Latachie's race and age range was counted by the CDC as an abortion death for 1991.

Dr. Steven Berkman

"Lisa," identified on this blog and other prolife sources as "Jane Doe of Newark," underwent an abortion by Dr. Steven Berkman (John Roe 96) at Metropolitan Medical Associates on June 16, 1993. She was in the second trimester of pregnancy. Jane reportedly felt dizzy in recovery. Berkman examined her, noted that she had a perforated uterus, and had her taken to a hospital by ambulance. She died in surgery about four hours later, leaving her four-year-old son motherless.

Guadalupe Negron

Honduran immigrant Guadalupe Negron went to Women's Medical Center in Queens -- what she thought was a safe, legal abortion clinic -- on July 9, 1993. Dr. Elyas Bonrouhi, who had changed his name to Dr. David Benjamin to cover his tracks after a lot of previous quackery, performed the abortion. What followed was a nightmare scenario, with Guadalupe slashed up internally and left naked and bleeding on a gurney in the filthy unlicensed facility while clueless staff made amateurish attempts to revive her and Benjamin's wife screamed hysterically and got in the way. Guadalupe was essentially dead on the spot, though medics did transfer her to a hospital for a futile attempt to save her life. In trying to extract a 20-week fetus without having first properly dilated the cervix, Benjamin had lacerated Lupe's cervix and ripped a three-inch hole in her uterus. She hemorrhaged and went into shock and cardiac arrest. Authorities determined that Benjamin had initiated the risky procedure without having first examined the patient. His treatment of Guadalupe was so appalling that Benjamin was convicted of murder.

Pamela Colson was 31 years old when her friends drove her to Women's Medical Services (Acme Reproductive Services 40), a National Abortion Federation member clinic in Pensacola, Florida, for a safe and legal abortion on Saturday, June 25, 1994. The abortion was performed by Dr. William Philip Keene. On the drive home, Pamela lost consciousness. Her friends pulled over into a parking lot and passers-by performed CPR while her friends called 911. Surgeons at the hospital performed an emergency hysterectomy to remove Pamela's perforated uterus, but she bled to death in spite of their efforts.

Cases for which I need original documents:

Claudia L., age 21, petitioned the state to close the clinic where Dr. Robert L. Gardner (John Roe 231) performed an abortion that nearly killed her. Gardner had torn both her uterus and the uterine artery. An investigation revealed that the clinic was allowing counselors with no medical degree to give medical advice and perform medical procedures, staff were not informing patients of risks, and there was not emergency equipment on hand. Gardner himself testified against the clinic, stating that they ran "an assembly-line operation." "Gardner admitted the clinic took only one or two minutes between operations, and used black-tarnished surgical instruments and 'switched sterile gloves between operations but never scrubbed down.'" This is the same clinic where Louchrisser Jackson underwent her fatal abortion. (Dallas Times Herald June 20, 1978; Dallas Morning News June 20, 1978, June 23, 1978, and July 28, 1978)

"Melissa" was 22 when she underwent an abortion performed by John Roe 32 on September 2, 1983. Roe discharged Melissa from the clinic with undetected perforations of the uterus and cervix. She started hemorrhaging on September 9, and went to a Planned Parenthood where another doctor performed a second procedure to empty her uterus without detecting the injuries. On September 12 Melissa was still bleeding and she went back to Roe 32, who examined her and told her to "increase her activity." The next day she was rushed to the hospital, profusely bleeding. Roe performed a D&C and noted "blood was squirting within the cervical canal." Eventually he located the perforations and sutured them before once again sending Melissa home. Two days later she rushed back to the hospital, hemorrhaging once again. Roe packed Melissa's uterus with gauze but this failed to stop the bleeding. Melissa finally went to another hospital where she underwent a total hysterectomy to save her life. (Lake County Indiana Superior Court Case No. 584-198)

"Linda" went to John Roe 106 for an abortion on April 5, 1986. Roe and several others discussed how advanced her pregnancy was until one of them announced, "We'll say 13 weeks" and everybody else agreed. Roe performed a suction abortion and left the room. Staff led Linda to a waiting room, and she was discharged from the facility. On April 9, her abdomen became distended and sore. The pain became so severe that she called her sister. Linda then started to hemorrhage, discharging large clots of blood and tissue, so her sister called an ambulance. Paramedics took Linda to a hospital where a D&C was performed to remove the retained fetal tissue that was causing the bleeding. When Linda called the clinic to report the complication, she said that an employee told her, "Well, you wanted to kill the baby and it's dead now, so what's the problem?" (Allegheny County Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas Case No. G.D. 88-05725)

A 17-year-old patient Mark didn't give a pseudonym to underwent an abortion performed by Robert Crist at West Loop clinic -- the same doctor and clinic responsible for Latachie Veal's death two months earlier. Her mother walked back to the procedure room after the abortion to find her daughter with "a pan of blood between her legs." This teen was hospitalized and underwent a hysterectomy to save her life. (Houston Chronicle November 3, 6, and 11, 1991; Kansas City Star November 6, 1991; Houston Post November 7 and 12, 1991; Washington Times November 21, 1991; Springfield News-Leader November 24, 1991)

Watch Lime 5: Hemorrhage on YouTube.