“Shannon” was six weeks pregnant when she underwent a legal abortion by suction curettage in the United States. An abortion has inherent risks for even a healthy person, but Shannon’s chronic health conditions put her at further risk. In addition to asthma, she had pre-existing pulmonary tuberculosis.
Despite Shannon’s health, the abortionist decided to proceed with the abortion and have her under general anesthesia. A patient with either asthma or pulmonary tuberculosis, let alone both, would be considered a high-risk patient for anything involving general anesthesia. A doctor should always conduct necessary evaluations to determine if this would be needlessly risky, especially if the operation is elective. If general anesthesia is truly necessary, these patients need specialized care and additional safeguards to make sure they are receiving enough oxygen.
Predictably, Shannon died of general anesthesia complications. This was a foreseeable and avoidable outcome.
https://www.ajog.org/article/0002-9378(82)90729-3/abstract
(Table 2, Patient 2)
(Note: The study recording Shannon’s death used CCD data from 1972 to 1978. Another study on abortion deaths from anesthesia complications from 1972 to 1977 also used CDC data and had no case matching Shannon’s. However, this is not absolute proof that her death was in. 1978 because the CDC’s abortion data reporting system is flawed and may not know about some deaths until years after they occur or sometimes not at all. The study on deaths from 1972–1977 was published approximately 5 years before the one that recorded Shannon’s death, so the CDC may have simply found more information on earlier deaths by then.)
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