September 30, 1985: Dead on the Scene

Life Dynamics identified 21-year-old Gaylene Michelle Golden on their “Blackmun Wall” as the woman who died after an abortion by by Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds. 

Reynolds performed the abortion on Gaylene in his Oklahoma City office on September 30, 1985. 

Due to a cervical laceration, Gaylene developed an embolism — both air and amniotic fluid in her bloodstream. This embolism killed her, leaving Gaylene’s son motherless.

The man Gaylene had entrusted with her life was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including safe and legal abortions, in his filthy clinic. His primary focus, though, seemed to be liposuction. Perhaps abortion seemed to be an easy way to make money using the same suction machine.

Reynolds’ anesthetist, age 60, had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. The operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers.

The quality of care at Reynold's facility was appalling

Reynolds tried to collect $500,000 on his wife’s life insurance after she bled to death after he opened 25-inch incision, ostensibly for liposuction, on September 7, 1989. Reynolds was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and fined $1. He voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma license.

ADDENDUM: Reynolds’ daughter, Shelly Reynolds, was charged with performing at least seven abortion without a license at her father’s clinic after he was stripped of his own license. (“District Attorney Seeks Abortion Information, The Oklahoman, July 31, 1991)

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Sources: 

• "Doctor’s Trial Nears In Liposuction Death,” The Daily Oklahoman, Apr. 22, 1991
• District Court of Oklahoma (OK) County, Case, CJ 87-2991
• Fatal Pulmonary Embolism During Legal Induced Abortion in the United States from 1972-1985,” Lawson, Herschel W., MD, Atrash, Hani K., MD, MPH, Franks, Adele L., MD, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol. 162, No. 4, April 1990, p. 986-990