Emmeko moved to San Diego at some point prior to 1993. By the turn of the 20th century she had lived in a series of apartments in the North Park area, which at the time was, according to Grok, a moderately run-down urban neighborhood with an above-average rate of property crime. According to an online records search, she was arrested in March of 1994, at the age of 21, and involved in the domestic courts in October of 1999, when she was 26. These might seem like minor bumps in the road, but as we will see, Emmeko was a troubled young woman.
Very little about her history is very straightforward. In fact, investigators were unable even to determine how often Emmeko had been pregnant in her life and the outcomes of those pregnancies. Was this her second pregnancy, 7th pregnancy, or 11th pregnancy? Had she delivered one or four live children prior to this pregnancy? Had she suffered a previous stillbirth? The only things certain turned out to be a this final pregnancy, a pregnancy that had ended with a C-section, and one that had ended with an induced abortion.
It All Comes Crashing Down
Emmeko was 29 years old and 32 weeks pregnant when she was struck with sudden severe abdominal pain either late night on February 17, 2002 or in the very early morning of February 18. One summary of her case said that the pain started when she was resting, but another indicates that she was cleaning her kitchen. Shortly after midnight the pain had become so severe that she called 911. San Diego Fire Medic Unit 62 rushed to her aid. They took her vitals and a brief medical history, nothing that there was no discharge or bleeding. Medics started an IV and transported her to Grossmont Hospital Women's Center.
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| Grok AI illustration |
Emmeko told the doctors that the pain had come on suddenly. Her urine tested positive for amphetamines, and she reported not having obtained any prenatal care. Her baby was still alive, though, as demonstrated by fetal heart tones.
Emmeko went into shock, with only a faint pulse and poor respiration. Doctors intubated her and administered packed red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma, likely both because they suspected a catastrophic complication with the uterus and/or placenta and because of anticipated blood loss during surgery. They rushed her into the operating room for an emergency C-section and exploratory surgery to determine the exact cause of the excruciating pain.
Upon opening Emmeko's abdomen, surgeons discovered that it was too late to save her unborn son, Matthew Stephen Ellis. He had been expelled into his mother's abdomen through a rupture in his mother's uterus. Both Matthew and the uterus were removed and doctors sutured the tear in her uterus and struggled to control the bleeding. They administered a total of 6 units of packed red blood cells, 2 units of fresh frozen plasma, and one unit of cryoprecipitate, which is a blood product used to combat hemorrhage caused by failure of the blood to clot properly.
In spite of these heroic efforts, Emmeko's heart stopped and her team was unable to resuscitate her. Emmeko was pronounced dead in the operating room at 2:28 am.
The medical examiner's office sent staff to the operating room to collect Emmeko's body, which was officially identified by her mother, and the body of her unborn child.
At Autopsy
Emmeko was only a tad over 5 feet tall, but weighed 194 pounds at autopsy, indicating difficulty maintaining a healthy weight. Other than that and the amphetamines, she appeared to have been in overall good health. Her internal organs were healthy and in good condition. Her hair was clean and healthy, her nails carefully trimmed and polished. She had a tattoo of a rose and tattoos reading "Anthony" and "Emmeko."
But there was something else evident at autopsy: Amphetamine use was not the only poor coping mechanism Emmeko had resorted to over the course of her life. Her wrists showed scars consistent with self-cutting, along with some old puncture scars around them. These were healed. Whatever was going on in her life during this final pregnancy, violence had not been a part of it. Emmeko's body showed all the signs of the medical interventions to try to save her life, but only minimal signs of injury -- a half-inch scar across her nose and some small old bruises on her right arm.
Understandably, the medical examiner made a very careful examination of Emmeko's uterus to determine why it had torn open, spilling out both her baby and her life. The placenta had not attached in any abnormal way. A previous lower uterine scar from a C-section was still holding strong.
But the area where Emmeko's uterus tore open is another matter. The muscular wall of the uterus, normally between 7 and 15 mm (1/3 to 2/3 inch) thick at late pregnancy, was only 3 mm (1/10 inch) thick in the area that later tore open. This ragged tear was 6 cm (2.36 inches) long and the area around it showed bleeding inside the tissue.
What had caused Emmeko's uterus to be so thin and vulnerable and ready to tear open in a later pregnancy? According to her family, Emmeko had undergone a “safe and legal” abortion at an FPA facility in San Diego. The top of her uterus had been scraped thin during the abortion, leading to Emmeko's death in this subsequent pregnancy.
Emmeko’s death was not included in CDC statistics on deaths from legal abortion because California did not submit abortion statistics to the FDA -- not to mention if her death was noted by public health officials at all, it would be attributed to the final, otherwise healthy pregnancy rather than to the previous abortion which had left a ticking time bomb ready to explode without warning.
Emmeko's family sued FPA and doctors Edward Allred, Joel Berchin, Mark Christofferson, Christopher H Glazener, along with Longmont Hospital and other physicians, on behalf of Emmeko and her unborn son.
She Was Not Alone
Emmeko was one of many who suffered fatal abortion injuries at Family Planning Associates Medical Group and its related facilities. Others include but are not limited to:
- Denise Holmes, age 24, who died from fetal bone marrow getting into her lungs in 1970
- Patricia Chacon, age 16, who bled to death in 1984
- Mary Pena, age 43, who also bled to death in1984
- Josefina Garcia, age 37, who bled to death from an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy in an FPA recovery room in 1985
- Laniece Dorsey, age 17, who went into a coma then quickly died in1986
- Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, who was sent home with retained fetal parts in 1988
- Tami Suematsu, age 19, who suffered bronchial spasm and death in 1988
- Susan Levy, age 30, a homeless woman who died of post-abortion infection while living ina a friend's car in 1992
- Deanna Bell, age 13, who died of a massive anesthesia overdose in 1992
- Christina Mora, age 18, who went septic after a three-minute second-trimester abortion in 1994
- Ta Tanisha Wesson, age 24, who went into a coma and died in 1995
- Nakia Jorden, who died of anesthesia complication sin 1998
- Maria Leho, who died of anesthesia complications in 1999
- Kimberly Neil, who stopped breathing and died in 2000
- Maria Rodriguez, age 22, who bled to death in 2000
- Chanelle Bryant, age 22, who died of sepsis from abortion pills in 2004
- "Kyla Ellis," age 23, who bled to death in 2014
In addition to these, Barbara Plenger also died in 1988 after an FPA facility inserted an IUD without full informed consent and caused an abscess in her reproductive organs.
Sources:
- Case Detail, Estate of Emmeko Reed vs. Family Planning Associates Medical Group
- San Diego Medical Examiner Summary
- San Diego Medical Examiner's Report MT# 02-0342
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