Wednesday, November 29, 2023

November 29, 1926: Dr. Lucy Hagenow's Last Known Victim

 

On November 29, 1926, 25-year-old stenographer Mary Moorehead died from a criminal abortion perpetrated in the Chicago office of Dr. Lucy Hagenow. 

Hagenow (pictured) wasn't arrested until November 13 of the following year. 

Hagenow told the court that Mary had come to her office on November 5, giving her name as Margaret Sullivan. Hagenow said that she examined Mary, who had a foul-smelling vaginal discharge. Hagenow said that she concluded that Mary's unborn baby had died.

Hagenow said that she packed Mary's vagina with an antiseptic-soaked cotton ball and sent her home. She said that she told Mary that she would come by the next day with another doctor. If that doctor concurred that the baby was dead, Hagenow would get yet another doctor to come and perform an operation to remove the dead baby. 

Hagenow said that Mary paid her $50 in advance for the promised care and left, but when she went to the address "Margaret Sullivan" had provided she found only a vacant lot. That was the last she'd known of the woman, she said, until she was arrested for Mary's death.

The prosecution, however, asserted that several police officers had been present when Mary was about to go surgery in an attempt to save her life. With Hagenow present, Mary told the police that Hagenow had used instruments on her to perpetrate an abortion on November 5.

Dr. Charles H. Phifer testified that on November 7 he saw Mary at her home. She was in a lot of pain and told him that she had been to see Hagenow. Dr. Phifer concluded that Mary was in labor, though he could not determine if the unborn child was alive or dead. He said that he told Mary to consult with Dr. Hagenow.

The next time Dr. Phifer saw Mary it was at Illinois Central Hospital on November 12. She was no longer pregnant and was suffering from septicemia. 

Hagenow was convicted of murder by abortion for Mary's death. She was sentenced to 14 years at Joliet Penitentiary, but was able to get her conviction overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court, which ordered a new trial in 1929. The judge, noting that there was no new evidence, dismissed the case, telling Hagenow, "You had better make your peace with God, Lucy Hagenow. I do not think your months on earth are many." 

Hagenow, who also went by the name of Louise or Louisa Hagenow, had a long and unsavory history of being involved in women's abortion deaths. The first were in San Francisco before Hagenow relocated to Chicago around 1890. The abortion deaths Hagenow was linked to include:



Tuesday, November 14, 2023

November 14, 1979: Happy Birthday, Christelle Morrison

 From The Survivors, and others linked to below.

On the night of November 14, 1979, a two-pound baby girl of 28 weeks gestation was found in a Nevada field, wrapped in an old, wet, dirty shirt. Her umbilical cord was still attached. The baby was blue and unresponsive, which is hardly surprising since the temperature that night was only 15 degrees. The baby was rushed to a rural emergency clinic, where a doctor immersed her in warm water. She revived and was transferred to Medical Center in Reno. Registered Nurse Susan Walker was among the staff that tenderly cared for the little girl. When she was three months old, weighing in at three pounds, the baby underwent heart surgery.

Susan Walker and her husband adopted the discarded miracle baby, who they named Christelle. According to Mrs. Walker, Christelle is "bright, beautiful, strong and healthy, and probably the most loving person you could ever meet! She is a living testimony of God’s tremendous power and love and of the value of each and every unborn child."

Tuesday, November 07, 2023

November 7, 1979: Happy Birthday to "Kimala's" Baby

 John Roe 481 performed an abortion on "Kimala" in March of 1979. On November 7 she gave birth to an infant daughter born disfigured and with cerebral palsy. (Cook County Illinois Circuit Court Case No. 81L 26210)

Thursday, November 02, 2023

November 2, 2010: Family Alleges Improper Monotoring

Dr. George McMillan
The family of 32-year-old Lisa Marie Fusco sued Dr. George McMillan and Brooklyn Ambulatory Physician Associates on behalf of her surviving child after she died from abortion complications.

Lisa had gone to Ambulatory Surgery Center of Brooklyn on October 26, 2010. Staff performed an ultrasound and did blood tests preparatory for an abortion. She returned on October 27, when staff inserted laminaria for an abortion and packed her vagina with gauze. 

Lisa returned to Ambulatory Surgery Center on October 28 to undergo a D&E abortion. 

According to the lawsuit, the procedure was not performed properly, causing an unspecified injury. Failure to properly monitor and care for Lisa led to her decompensation -- meaning that her body was trying to maintain blood pressure and adequate perfusion but was unable to do so, causing her condition to deteriorate rapidly. The suit also asserted that the abortion was in some way contraindicated, meaning that Lisa had some medical condition that either meant that it was unsafe to perform an abortion in an outpatient setting or that it was unsafe to perform an abortion at all. 

Lisa's condition continued to deteriorate, leading to her death on November 2, 2010.

Nicey WashingtonNicey Washington had died after an abortion at Ambulatory Surgery Center ten years earlier. 

Sources:


November 2, 2010: Lack of Diligence Proves Fatal in Brooklyn

Lisa Marie Fusco died on November 2, 2010 after an abortion performed at Ambulatory Surgery Center of Brooklyn.

Lisa went to Ambulatory Surgery Center on October 27, 2010 to begin a multi-day abortion with the insertion of laminaria to dilate her cervix. The practitioner also packed Lisa's vagina with gauze. Lisa returned the next day for the abortion. The allegations in the lawsuit are fairly vague, just noting that due diligence was not followed, the procedure performed on Lisa was contraindicated, and Lisa was not properly monitored during the procedure.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Lisa's surviving child also named Dr. George McMillan, presumably the abortionist.