January 26, 2001: Failure to Monitor and Resuscitate

Access Health Center

On January 22, 2001, 19-year-old Melissa Heim went to Access Health Center in Downers Grove, Illinois. She was given "twilight anesthesia" with a drug cocktail including Versed, Fentanyl, and Brevital for a safe, legal abortion which started at about 11:45 a.m. and was finished at about noon. 

After the abortion, she was moved to the recovery area, where she went into cardio-respiratory arrest about half an hour later. 

An ambulance was summoned, and Melissa was resuscitated by the paramedics, but due to the brain injury she had suffered, she died on January 26. 

Her survivors filed suit against Access, doctors Victor Espinosa and Alfonso Del Granado, and nurse Pat Hurt, holding that they had failed to monitor her properly in recovery and failed to resuscitate her quickly enough to save her life.

Watch Was Melissa Properly Monitored? on YouTube.

Source: Cook County Circuit Court No. 03 L 000694