April 29, 1986: At Least the Receptionist/Anesthetist Isn't Why She Died

Twenty-year-old Gloria Aponte went to National Abortion Federation member Hanan Rotem in Stamford, Connecticut, for a safe and legal abortion on April 29, 1986. She was in the second trimester of her pregnancy. 

A few hours after the abortion, Gloria was declared dead from hemorrhage at St. Joseph's Hospital in Stamford. She had a perforated uterus. 

Gloria, a homemaker and mother of one, was a Colombian national in the US on a work visa. She left her husband, Carlos, to raise their child alone.

Dr. Hanan Rotem

Rotem, who lived in Larchmont, NY and maintained practices in Stamford, New Rochelle, and Poughkeepsie, had no hospital privileges and no emergency patient transfer agreement in place. A graduate of Sackler Medical School at Tel Aviv University, he had completed his residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

An investigation by health officials found that Rotem had failed to perform necessary blood tests, such as hematocrit and Rh factor, failed to properly dilate Gloria's cervix, failed to obtain informed consent, failed to monitor Gloria's vital signs, and had permitted a receptionist with no medical training to administer anesthesia. They also found that he'd failed to perform an ultrasound to properly determine the gestational age prior to the abortion, thus choosing a technique appropriate for a 16-week pregnancy when Gloria was actually 18 or 19 weeks pregnant.

For three of the charges brought before the board, Rotem was fined a total of $2,000. He asserted that Gloria had died from an amniotic fluid embolism and not because of any shortcomings on his part. He also asserted that he had performed more than 15,000 abortions and therefore was more than qualified to practice.

Watch NAF Member's Patient Bleeds to Death on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Larchmont doctor faces charges in abortion case," (Mamoroneck, NY) Daily Times, November 7, 1987
• "Doctor gets rebuke in abortion death," Hartford Courant, November 23, 1989
• "Doctor reprimanded in patient's death," (Port Chester NY) Daily Item, November 23, 1989