Saturday, August 10, 2024

August 10, 1988: Pink, Responsive, Alert, and Dead

 Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health ("CRASH") was the model abortion clinic -- a published review of their earliest patient records, published by Bernard Nathanson, played a key role in "proving the safety of legal outpatient abortion."

On August 10, 1988, 19-year-old K.B. (due to confidentiality, the public record documents do not give the patient's name) was given anesthesia for a safe, legal 14-week abortion. Since Life Dynamics calls her "Kelly" on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by abortion, I will refer to her as Kelly as well. She is "Christine" in Lime 5.

Shortly after the procedure, performed by Dr. Colin Bailey (John Roe 44 in Lime 5),she showed signs of distress: pale complexion, weak pulse, dilated pupils, and darkened blood. Though she started showing these signs by around 12:15 or 12:30, nobody summoned an ambulance until 1:05 pm. Kelly was transported to Cabrini Medical Center where she was pronounced dead from complications of anesthesia.

After Kelly's death, the health department investigated and found a mystery: Kelly's chart listed her post-operative condition as "pink, responsive, alert," even though she had gone into full cardio-respiratory arrest by the time indicated on the assessment. They learned that the note had been entered into the chart before the abortion was even performed.

The inspectors noted that CRASH "did not employ proper monitoring equipment or procedures," "had no working EKG machine," and didn't have a cardiac defibrillator. They noted that no one on staff was qualified to perform CPR. No one on staff was qualified to administer anesthesia, and they did not use proper procedures or equipment. Anesthesia was administered "by eye," with no means of accurately measuring the dose. Dosage was estimated to be twice that recommended in the procedure manual.

The operating rooms were found to be ill-lit, and there was no soap or paper towels at the scrub sink. The scrub sinks were stained, the walls and floors dirty, trash was stored in the scrub room. There were red make-up stains on the oxygen masks and nitrous oxide masks, dusty tubing on the suction machines, and blood on the wheels of the operating table. 

Professional headshot of a very distinguished-looking older white man with a balding grey pate, neatly trimmed grey beard, and wire-rim eyeglasses
Dr. David Gluck
CRASH had no documentation verifying the credentials or qualifications of medical director David Gluck. Gluck had been previously convicted of felony charges related to the sale of 48,000 Diluadid tablets to pay off gambling debts. His license had actually been revoked two months before Kelly's death, but had been restored by judicial stay.


There was no evidence at the investigation two weeks after Kelly's death that Gluck had reviewed her chart, or the charts of 18 other patients identified as having suffered complications.

The state closed CRASH for 60 days, but it never re-opened.

Dr. Gluck went on to perform the fatal abortion on Alerte Desanges in 1994.

Watch "Lime 5: A Shaky Beginning" on YouTube.

Sources: 
  • New York Health Department Order No. 83383136, Case No. 11097
  • New York Medical Board Statement of Charges and other documents, Calendar No. 12022 & 11018
  • "State shuts abortion clinic," New York Daily News, October 1, 1988

Friday, August 09, 2024

August 9, 1927: A Doctor in Chicago

 On August 9, 1927, 33-year-old homemaker Irene Campbell died in the Chicago office of Dr. Herman Webber from an abortion performed there that day.

At the time of the 1920 census, Irene and her husband, Robert, were living with her parents, John J. and Bertha (Shuttz) O’Connor of Queenstown, Ireland, and Chicago, Illinois, respectively, along with Irene’s brothers John, William, and James.

Webber was arrested on August 9, and on September 1 he was indicted for felony murder. However, he shows up living in the community in the 1930 census so evidently he did not go to prison over Irene's death.

Watch "Was Dr. Webber Guilty?" on YouTube.

Thursday, August 08, 2024

August 8, 1975: Uterine Rupture During Risky Saline Abortion

On August 6, 1975, 29-year-old Cheryl Tubbs underwent a saline abortion at Pacific Glen Hospital in Los Angeles County. A saline abortion involved using a large syringe to remove amniotic fluid from the womb and replace it with a strong salt solution that would kill the unborn baby.

Cheryl experienced heavy vaginal bleeding after this safe, legal abortion, so she was transferred to White Hospital on the evening of August 7. She continued to bleed profusely, and twice went into cardiac arrest. Staff performed a paracentesis on her to remove blood and fluids from her abdomen. About an hour after midnight, staff could no longer detect any blood pressure. For an hour they tried heart massage, to no avail. Cheryl was pronounced dead at 2:30AM on August 8.

An autopsy revealed that Cheryl's uterus had ruptured during the abortion, spilling blood and uterine material into her abdomen. She had bled to death.

Two years later, Jackie Bailey also bled to death from a ruptured uterus caused by a saline abortion at Pacific Glen.

Saline abortion was hardly a pleasant experience. The abortionist would remove as much amniotic fluid as he could using a needle and syringe. He would then replace the amniotic fluid with a concentrated saline (salt) solution that would poison and kill the fetus. The woman would then go into labor and expel the fetus.

Saline abortions became very popular in Japan following WWII. Within the Japanese medical community, however, word quickly spread: this method was unsatisfactory. Too many women were being injured and killed. Over 70 papers were published in the Japanese medical community reporting hazards of saline abortions, including at least 60 maternal deaths. The Japanese Obstetrical and Gynecological Society condemned the technique, and it was quickly abandoned. But the Japanese abortionists kept news of the trouble among themselves -- until Western nations discovered instillation abortions and embraced them with great enthusiasm.

Two Japanese doctors, Takashi Wagatsuma and Yukio Manabe, broke the silence. Wagatsuma wrote, "It is, I think, worthwhile to report its rather disastrous consequences which we experienced in Japan." Manabe wrote, "It is now known that any solution placed within the uterus can be absorbed rather rapidly into the general circulation through the vascular system of the uterus and placenta. Thus any solution used in the uterus for abortion must be absolutely safe even if given by direct intravenous injection. ... A solution deadly to the fetus may be equally toxic and dangerous to the mother. ... In spite of the accumulating undesirable reports, the use of hypertonic saline for abortion is still advocated and used ... in the United States and Great Britain. I would like to call attention to the danger of the method and would predict the further occurrence of deaths until this method is entirely forgotten in these countries."

 As western abortionists gained experience with saline abortions, other grim reports arose. A British study published in 1966 found that the saline would enter the mother's bloodstream and cause brain damage. Swedish researchers noticed an unacceptably high rate of complications and deaths. Sweden and the Soviet Union abandoned saline abortion as too dangerous for women in the late 1960s.

For whatever reasons, American abortionists were deaf to these warnings. When New York had completely repealed its abortion law, doctors had tremendous leeway in abortion practice. In New York City in particular, it became popular to inject the woman with the saline in the office, then send her home with instructions to report to a hospital when she went into labor. This was, to say the least, a highly irresponsible way to use an abortion technique that was risky even when performed in a hospital under close medical supervision. Women started dying from these reckless saline abortions.

Women were also already dying in California as well, even though the law there still required abortions to be done in hospitals.

After Roe v Wade was handed down, saline and other instillation abortions spread to other areas of the country, despite the dismal goings-on in New York and California, and of course more women died.

US abortionists showed no alarm over these deaths. Even as late as the 1990's, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and abortionists such as Don Sloan and Warren Hern, were describing saline and other instillation abortions in such terms as "a low-risk procedure."

Statistics show, however, that abortionists did gradually move away from saline instillation abortions, albeit more slowly in New York City than in the rest of the country.

Since the problem of maternal deaths from instillation abortions had been long documented, this factor probably only had a minor impact on the move away from saline and other instillation abortions. One important factor was financial: although suction and D&C were adequate procedures for first-trimester abortions, they were inadequate for killing and removing the larger second-trimester fetuses. But the uterus was not large enough to perform instillation abortions until 16 weeks. This left a 4-week "grey period" during which women could change their minds about aborting.

There was also the problem of starting a suction or D&C abortion only to discover that the pregnancy was already in the second trimester. Necessity is the mother of invention, and abortionists who found themselves dealing with second-trimester fetuses that had already been damaged had to come up with ways to remove these fetuses quickly and without alarming the patient. Thus evolved the Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) procedure that remained popular for mid-trimester abortions for over a decade.

D&E was cheaper than instillation abortions, which required at least an overnight hospital stay. It also had the advantage of producing fewer live births, the "dreaded complication" no abortionist wanted to face.

Watch "Another Needless Saline Death" on YouTube.

August 8, 1905: Abortifacient Proves Fatal

Jennie L. Young lived in Washington, Pennsylvania with her widowed father, Franklin Young. Jennie, an only child, kept house for him.

On July 15, Jennie took ill. She was attended by Dr. W. L. Crawford for four days, then Dr. N. S. Dunning was called in on a consultation. Both doctors attended to Jennie together.

On August 3, Jennie made an affidavit before Squire Harvey Brush, stating that Norman Schaeffer, a 40-year-old widowed railroad worker and father of three, had provided her with three abortifacient drugs. He was arrested the following day.

Jennie continued to sicken and died of infection at 8:40 pm on August 8, 1905. 

Jennie's father, Franklin Young, testified at the inquest that Jennie had told him that Schaeffer had gotten her the drugs. A neighbor, Mary Snultz, testified that Jennie had indicated that she was about four months pregnant and that a man had provided her with abortifacient drugs. 

During his trial, the prosecution was able to prove that Shaeffer was employed by the Kerbaugh Company and while working near Washington Borough "made the acquaintance" of Jennie Young. The two had a relationship for a period of several months.

Jennie's signed statement was entered into court records. However, due to a lack of any corroborating evidence the judge directed a verdict of not guilty.

Watch Who Provided the Fatal Chemicals? on YouTube.

Source:

Wednesday, August 07, 2024

August 7, 1983: Fatal Embolism in Connecticut

Mary Ives was 28 when she had an abortion 19 weeks into her pregnancy. She was admitted to W.W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut, for treatment of complications of the abortion, but her heart and lungs failed due to amniotic fluid embolism (amniotic fluid that got into Mary's bloodstream). Mary was pronounced dead on August 7, 1983. (NEED ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS: "Fatal Pulmonary Embolism During Legal Induced Abortion in the United States from 1972-1985," Lawson et al., American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol. 162, No. 4, April 1990, p. 986-990; Connecticut Death Certificate No. 106-83-017389)

August 7, 1979: One of Four Deaths at Miami Clinic

Ruth Montero, age 23, underwent a safe and legal vacuum abortion of her 8-week pregnancy, under general anesthesia in August of 1979, at Women's Care Center in Miami. Ruth awoke from anesthesia in the recovery room, then went into convulsions and cardiopulmonary arrest. 

The abortion had been performed by Dr. Elisa Avila. Avila told police that she had attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but when this failed to revive her patient she called Miami Fire Rescue.

Ruth died from hemorrhage and a prolapsed mitral valve on August 7. 

She was the first of four women to die after abortions there.

The clinic was owned by 53-year-old Hipolito Barreiro, trained in Argentina and West Africa, but not licensed in U.S. Barreiro was accused of practicing without a license and tampering with witness -- but not until after three more women died: Maura Morales in May of 1981, Myrta Baptiste in December of 1982, and Shirley Payne in January of 1983. Myrta and Shirley died within three weeks of each other.

The deaths of four women in such a short time in one abortion facility was even enough to capture the attention of state officials, who got a judge to sign an order closing the clinic down. Police seized records. Barreiro was charged with manslaughter for Shirley's death.

The Centers for Disease Control moved in to investigate and declared that Myrta Baptiste's abortion was actually an illegal abortion, not the safe and legal kind, because Dr. Orlando Zaldivar's license was expired at the time he performed it. Interestingly enough, CDC officials didn't consider this rash of abortion deaths worth mentioning in their 1982-1983 Abortion Surveillance Summary.

The string of deaths also captured the attention of the Florida Abortion Council, a group of abortion clinic owners who organized to fight against health and safety regulations of abortion clinics. Their success in blocking regulation in 1978 left the door open for Ruth's death. Their further success in 1980 allowed the quackery that killed Maura, Myrta, and Shirley, along with other women who died from quackery in other Florida facilities over the years, including:

Sources:

August 7, 1993: Sloppy Care Leads to Death

 A woman identified as "Patient A" was 21 years old when she went to Craig M. Linder at 930 Broadway, North Massapequa, NY on August 5 or 7, 1993, for an abortion. I will call her Aubrey.

This address was Linder's private office. I have been unable to determine if he advertised and named his office as if it was a licensed clinic. 

Linder did not document any physical examination or medical history on Aubrey's chart. He didn't even note the basic vital signs of blood pressure, respiration, and pulse.

Linder administered 30cc of Marcaine to Aubrey. This drug comes with a warning:

  • MARCAINE / MARCAINE WITH EPINEPHRINE are to be administered in carefully adjusted dosages by or under the supervision of experienced clinicians who are well versed in the diagnosis and management of dose-related toxicity and other acute emergencies which might arise from the block to be employed.
  • Use MARCAINE / MARCAINE WITH EPINEPHRINE only if the following are immediately available: oxygen, cardiopulmonary resuscitative equipment and drugs, and the personnel resources needed for proper management of toxic reactions and related emergencies [see WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS (5.2), ADVERSE REACTIONS (6), OVERDOSAGE (10)].

Aubrey immediately went into seizures and cardiac arrest.  In spite of the FDA warning, Linder did not have appropriate emergency care equipment, supplies, staff, or a plan. 

Linder also did not document anything that happened to Aubrey, nor what actions he took to revive her. Medical board disciplinary documents indicate that Aubrey died.

Watch on Was This a Fake Clinic? on YouTube.

Source: Consent Order and Statement of Charges, August 1996

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

August 6, 1920: More Scanty Information from Chicago

On August 6, 1920, 35-year-old Christina Anderson died at Chicago's County Hospital from a criminal abortion. Midwife Emelia Schaffer was arrested for murder, and a woman named Pearl Freese as an accessory. Schaffer was indicted on August 14, but the case never went to trial. (See Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database)

According to death records, Christina worked as an employee at Grant Hospital in Chicago. She was a Chicago native

Watch Another From the Homicide in Chicago Database on YouTube.

August 6, 1988: Found Dead in Motel Room

 In late July of 1988, 30-year-old Laura Marie Ryan Sorrels underwent an abortion at a facility in Lancaster, California.

Two weeks later, on August 6th, she was found dead in a motel room. Her one-year-old daughter was found in the room with her.

Whoever had performed Laura’s abortion had failed to notice that the embryo was not in her uterus, but was in her fallopian tube. The tube ruptured, and Laura died of blood loss and shock, her baby daughter by her side.

Even though, in theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die of ectopic pregnancy complications, experiences shows that they’re actually more likely to die, due to sloppy practices by abortion practitioners. Induced abortion also increases the risk of ectopic pregnancy in a subsequent pregnancy.

Watch "Fatal Failure to Diagnose" on YouTube.

Sources: State of California Death Certificate, 88-146505; Los Angeles County Autopsy Report, 88-07800

Monday, August 05, 2024

August 5, 2008: Yet Another Planned Parenthood Death

When the Chicago Tribune was investigating the lack of records, Carole Brite, then president of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, could not confirm if they had reported Irene Stevenson's 2002 abortion death, since the records were in storage, but did say that they reported a patient's 2008 death. 

Who was this patient?

My research arm, Keely, found a wrongful death lawsuit against planned Parenthood: Estate of Bonnie Hunt vs. Planned Parenthood. Bonnie died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago at the age of 44 on August 5, 2008. Bonnie's mother sued Dr. Lori Gawron, Dr. Caroline Hoke, Northwestern hospital, Dr. Melissa Pendergrass, Planned Parenthood, Dr. Catherine Stika, and Dr. Lori Weinberg. It's common in abortion malpractice cases to have no idea who the doctor was so the plaintiff has to sue every doctor who works at the facility in order to determine who was responsible for the woman's death.

According to her obituary, Bonnie left behind three children.

Gawron is an abortionist based at a Planned Parenthood in Salt Lake City, Hoke is an abortionist that works at at least two Planned Parenthoods in Illinois. Stika works at a "family planning" clinic associated with Ryan Center at University of Chicago, so she's likely also an abortionist. I can't find Pendergrass or Weinberg on the AbortionDocs site so they are likely affiliated with the hospital.

The other Planned Parenthood deaths I have in my records are Elise Kalat in 1987, Diana Lopez in 2002, Holly Patterson and Vivian Tran in 2003, Edrica Goode in 2007, Roselle Owens in 2009, Tonya Reaves in 2012, and Cree Erwin-Shephard in 2016. 

Watch Another Planned Parenthood Death on YouTube.

Sources:

Sunday, August 04, 2024

August 4, 2006: Post-Abortion Murder-Suicide

A passport-photo style picture of a smiling young white woman with her light-brown hair pulled back from her face
Laura Grunas

On August 4, 2006, 30-year-old Laura Grunas, a police officer in Plantation, Florida, shot her boyfriend, 31-year-old firefighter Robert Peat, dead inside his home. Grunas then turned the gun on herself. The couple had been together for about a year. 

Neighbors reported that Laura was hysterical the last day of her life, standing outside Peat's garage yelling, "Why is everyone blaming this on me? He killed my baby." The argument became so loud that neighbors called the police.

In what those close to the pair believed to have been a mutual decision, Laura had aborted the couple's baby a few weeks earlier. Michael Roth, a friend of Peat, told police that Peat had been "enormously upset" about the abortion. "He was a lot more religious than me and didn't believe in that, but they had felt that that was the right thing to do for whatever reasons."

Peat had called Roth and asked him to come over shortly before the shooting. Roth said that when he arrived, Grunas became upset, saying, "If, when he felt the need to call, did he tell you about killing my baby?"

Robert Peat
Peat also called the police, and when two officers arrived, Grunas, a colleague of theirs, became furious. They asked her to leave, and she complied. Peat asked Roth to remain with him, and Roth recommended that Peat get a restraining order. "Thirty seconds after I tried to make that suggestion, his phone started ringing. .... And then she started banging on the front door."

Laura then used a Smith & Wesson 9mm, her work-issued handgun, to shoot out the sliding glass door to the kitchen. Roth, who suffered minor injuries in the incident, fled the kitchen through the shot-out door and called 911.

Sources:

August 4, 1999: Happy Birthday, Baby Grace

 From The Survivors

Martin Haskell
On August 4, 1999, a woman came to Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. She was 26 weeks pregnant, and had gone to Martin Haskell's abortion facility for a D&X or "partial birth abortion." Haskell had inserted laminaria to dilate her cervix so that the fetus could be extracted and killed. However, the woman had gone into labor before the final appointment.

The child, dubbed "Baby Grace", was born alive, weighing in at 1.5 pounds. She survived and was placed in foster care. Doctors at the hospital established a trust fund for her future medical care.

After the birth, Haskell's clinic issued a press release stating that "one of our patients miscarried at a Dayton hospital. Hundreds of women miscarry during the second trimester in the United States each week." How they manage to describe a live birth as a "miscarriage" boggles the mind.

Another infant was not so fortunate. A 19-year-old mother underwent the first part of a three-day 22-week abortion at Haskell's facility on April 6, 1999. She went into labor and gave birth the next day. The baby girl died three hours later of extreme prematurity. ("Baby born in abortion procedure, opponents say," Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 21, 1999)

August 4, 1924: A Habitual Offender in Wichita

Inez Lorean Franklin, a 19-year-old Southwestern Bell Telephone employee of Buffalo, Missouri, died on August 4, 1924 in Wichita, Kansas. The autopsy found that Lorean had died of peritonitis due to an abortion. 

An inquest was held to verify if Dr. Charles C. Keester had perpetrated a fatal abortion on her since Lorean died in Keester's hospital, Keester's Sanitarium at 1600 East Harry Street. 

Authorities believed that he had performed the abortion on August 1. 

Lorean's sister, Addie Furlington, swore a complaint against Franklin in the death. Keester asserted that he had merely operated on Lorean for gallstones.

Two young men who were not identified in the source were "alleged to have admitted their connection with the affair and to have made arrangements with the doctor for the operation."

Keester had already been implicated in the abortion deaths of Hattie Myers, age 19, March 7, 1922; and Hazel Hadicke, age 19, December 16, 1923. The same month that Loren died, Keester was implicated in the abortion death of "Bonnie," age 18. The Newton Journal noted, "Dr. Keester has an infamous reputation in Wichita and evidently has been pulling iniquity with a cart rope. It is alleged that the officers were ready on numerous occasions to close in on questionable cases but the relatives involved would back out, avoiding publicity and scandal."

Keester was charged originally charged with first degree murder but ultimately convicted of manslaughter in Lorean's death and sentenced to 5 to 21 years in prison. He was freed on bail pending the new trial, which was granted after an appellate court found that the judge had erred in instructing the jury that they could find Keester guilty of first degree manslaughter though the charge had been second-degree manslaughter. After eight unsuccessful attempts to schedule a trial, Lorean's sisters agreed in May of 1927 to sign a written recommendation to end prosecution. 

The decision to drop prosecution would prove ill-considered. Keester on to be convicted in the February 28, 1930 abortion death of Rena Armstrong, age 17. 

Watch "Freed to Kill Again" on YouTube.

Sources:

  • "Lorean Franklin," Newton Kansan, August 8, 1924
  • "Charge Doctor With Murder Following Alleged Operation," Hutchinson News, August 11, 1924
  • "Postpones Inquest," Wichita Daily Eagle, August 13, 1924
  • "Kansas Notes," Concordia Press, August 14, 1924
  • "Keester Facing Murder Charge," The Newton Kansan," August 15, 1924
  • "Dr. Chas. C. Keester Charged With Murder," The Newton Journal, August 22, 1924
  • "Dr. Keester Charged With Malpractice," The Newton Journal, August 29, 1924
  • "Keester Asking for New Trial," The Newton Journal, December 12, 1924
  • "Doctor's Case Brings Legal Records to Fore," Wichita Evening Eagle, April 2, 1927
  • "To Hear Keester Appeal Monday," Wichita Daily Eagle, May 2, 1927
  • "Statements of Sisters to End Keester Case," Wichita Evening Eagle, May 3, 1927


  • August 4, 1942: Midwife's Fatal Efforts in Chicago

    On August 4, 1942, 18-year-old Eva Moyer died after an abortion perpetrated by Chicago midwife Katheryn Eickenberg, age 58. Her body had been discovered in the attic of the attic of Eickenberg's home. 

    A taxi driver testified that he had taken Eva to Eickenberg's house three times in the week prior to her death. The driver said that Eva was accompanied by James Tivey, a sailor, on those trips to the midwife. 

    Tivey testified that he had paid Eickenberg $50 for the abortion. 

    Eickenberg was convicted of murder by abortion and sentenced to 14 years in prison. 

    Eva hailed from South Langhorne, Pennsylvania. I have been unable to determine why she was in Chicago. 

    Watch Body Found in Midwife's Attic on YouTube.

    Sources:

    Saturday, August 03, 2024

    August 3, 1991: Delayed Transfer Leads to Death

    Dr. Orrin Moore
    Dawn Mack, a 21-year-old accountant from Stamford, Connecticut, had an abortion performed at National Abortion Federation member facility Eastern Women's Center  on August 2, 1991.  Dawn, the mother of an infant, was about 15 or 16 weeks into her pregnancy. A doctor inserted laminaria to dilate Dawn's cervix then sent her home. 

    She returned the following day for the procedure. During the abortion, Dawn went stopped breathing. Her oxygen saturation level dropped to 88%. The anesthesiologist, Dr. Aurel Calalb, administered oxygen and Dawn's oxygen level returned to normal. Calalb did not make a note of this incident, nor did he mention it to Dr. Orrin Moore, who was performing the procedure. (Moore later let his New York license expire and relocated to Kansas.)

    Dawn was declared stable, with her blood pressure recorded at 8:55 a.m. as 130/80. She was sent to the recovery room just down the hall where her blood pressure was recorded as only 96/60 and her pulse 96. In spite of this alarming sign that Dawn was in severe trouble, nurse Linda Wissbrun noted that Dawn was unusually drowsy then left the recovery room. 

    Several other nurses were present with Dawn, who was at the time the only patient there, but nobody documented attending to the young woman in any way. When Wissbrun returned five minutes later, she found Dawn completely unresponsive. She tried to find a pulse and sent for help.

    Location of Eastern Women's Center
    Eastern's nursing supervisor arrived about five minutes later and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. There was no crash cart or ambu bag immediately available. Dr. Elena Raftopol, another anesthesiologist, arrived at around 9:07 a.m. and began to administer oxygen by ambu-bag, then took Dawn to the operating room where she intubated her and began CPR. Dawn was not transported to a hospital until 10:00 a.m., nearly an hour after staff first noted that she wasn't breathing. Dawn was pronounced dead at 4:30 pm.


    An autopsy noted that she had suffered an amniotic fluid embolism. All of the defendants in the case filed by Dawn's survivors argued that an amniotic fluid embolism can not be prevented or treated and thus Dawn would have died no matter what they had done. The jury found that the clinic and nurse Wissbrun were 100% liable.

    Eastern Women's Center also provided fatal abortion care to Dawn Ravenelle and Venus Ortiz.

    August 3, 1982: Obsolete and Fatal

    Dr. Youl Choi
    Angel Dardie, age 22, left two children motherless when she died on August 3, 1982, of disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a clotting disorder) after a safe, legal saline abortion performed by Youl Choi at Plymouth General Hospital near Detroit. 

    Choi performed this highly risky procedure even though three countries -- Japan, Sweden, and the USSR -- had entirely abandoned it due to the risk of serious injury and death to the mothers.

    Angel's mother sued, but was awarded a meager settlement of $6000 from Choi and $2500 from the hospital, roughly half of which was eaten up by legal fees and funeral expenses. Choi was also sued on behalf of two abortion patients who had been left incapacitated by their injures and on behalf of a baby who had been born alive then left in a bucket, delaying medical care until after she had suffered serious injuries.

    Choi also performed the abortion that left Nina Gaston comatose for 16 years before her death in 2004.


    Wayne County, MI, Circuit Court Case No. 84 423 794-NM

    August 3, 2009: Safe and Legal Homicide in California

    Dr. Andrew Rutland
    On July 28, 2009, 30-year-old Ying Chen, who did not speak English, went to Dr. Andrew Rutland's acupuncture and abortion facility in a San Gabriel, California, strip mall for a safe, legal abortion. She arrived at about 11 a.m. A Chinese translator was present at the facility, though medical board documents do not indicate if Rutland provided the translator or if Ying brought the translator.

    Ying was 16 or 17 weeks pregnant by examination -- well into the second trimester. Rutland didn't document when Ying's last period was, nor did he document her height and weight. He didn't include an ultrasound report in her chart. Her chart did, however, include two signed consent forms -- for a first-trimester abortion.

    Because of how advanced Ying's pregnancy was, Rutland was going to insert laminaria, which are sticks of dried seaweed, in Ying's cervix to dilate it for the procedure, which Rutland planned to perform about six hours later, when the laminaria had sufficiently dilated the cervix. Ying asked for pain medication for this procedure.

    Rutland injected Ying with Demerol, which he was not authorized the dispense in an unauthorized setting. He had brought the drug from his Anaheim office. Rutland didn't document the administration of Demerol in Ying's chart.

    He positioned Ying for the laminaria insertion procedure, and injected her cervix with four injections of lidocaine, which he had also brought from his Anaheim office. Within minutes of the injection, Rutland told the board, Ying's arms and legs contracted, but she was alert and responsive, with good blood pressure. Rutland started an IV.

    About ten minutes later, Ying was having some trouble speaking and breathing. Rutland told an acupuncturist who worked at the same office to call 911. The call was placed at 1:19 pm. Ying went into complete cardio-respiratory arrest. Clinic staff reportedly performed CPR, but when paramedics arrived a minute later, they reported that nobody was providing her with care. The medics took Ying to San Gabriel Medical Center, where she died six days later of lidocaine toxicity.

    In his statement to the medical board, Rutland said that he wasn't aware that the clinic even had a crash cart, which was kept at the back of the facility. The crash cart in question was stocked with expired medications. Rutland didn't use his own crash cart, which he'd brought from his Anaheim clinic, because he'd left it in his car.

    Nobody at the facility was certified in CPR.

    The medical examiner found the case so appalling that Ying's death was ruled a homicide. Her boyfriend, Zixiang Hu, filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of the couple's 2-year-old daughter.

    The Investigation

    The California medical board found that Rutland has been operating in a facility that wasn't adequate equipped for emergencies, which "casts doubt on his professional judgment." The clinic, which Rutland owned, lacked an appropriate municipal license. Rutland didn't carry malpractice insurance, and had lied to the DEA about his medical license having been previously suspended. 

    The board also found that Rutland "administered Lidocaine without knowing the safe dosage range or maximum safe dose" and that his "response to the medical crisis was inappropriate in that he failed to recognize Lidocaine toxicity in a timely manner, did not give the patient an oxygen mask, and delayed in calling the paramedics." They also noted that Rutland failed to report both Ying's hospitalization and her death to the medical board, as required by law.
    Dr. Rultand acknowledged that the incident was terribly unfortunate, but asserted that everything he did was within the standard of care. Dr. Rutland denied operating a medical clinic on the premises, despite a sign on the door that said "Rutland MD Medical Clinic." Dr. Rutland denied owning the medical clinic where the incident occurred. Dr. Rutland argued that the nature of the procedures he performed did not require him to have malpractice insurance and did not require that the clinic be equipped for serious emergencies. Dr. Rutland claimed he administered, not dispensed the Demerol, and that doing so was not in violation of DEA regulations.
    Although Administrative Judge James Ahler said that Rutland "presents a risk of danger and there is a likelihood of injury to the public" if he were allowed to continue to practice, the medical board failed to revoke or even suspend his license. Instead, in their January 7 hearing, they just banned him from performing any more abortions, performing other surgeries, or delivering any more babies. Ultimately Rutland decided to surrender his license permanently on February 11, 2011, rather than face pending disciplinary proceedings.

    California Deputy Attorney General Douglas Lee said that in his care of Ying Chen, Rutland "committed repeated negligent acts", and said that he had a history of dishonesty and corruption, including lying to patients and to authorities.

    Rutland argued that banning him from performing abortions was uncalled for on the grounds that he wasn't actively performing an abortion on Ying when she suffered the fatal mistake. His lawyer, Peter Osinoff, asked the judge to give weight to the 100 abortions Rutland had performed without incident over a two year period.

    Less than a month after he was banned from performing abortions, Rutland got caught scheduling them in a sting operation. His attorney argued that it was okay for Rutland to do chemical abortions and insisted that Rutland's daughter, also a physician, was the one performing the surgical abortions at the clinic.

    Rutland's History

    This was not Rutland's first run-in with the medical board. He had surrendered his license in October of 2002 after allegations of negligence, misconduct, and incompetence in his treatment of pregnant women, gynecological patients, and newborns. One obstetric patient bled to death. Two babies died, one in January of 1997 and one in July of 1999. The board investigated reports that Rutland performed unnecessary hysterectomies, lied to patients, and had sex with patients in his office.

    One of the infants who died, Jillian Broussard, suffered spinal cord injuries while Rutland was using forceps to deliver her. She lived six days. Her death ultimately led the medical board to revoke Rutland's license in 2003. Jillian's parents, who were present at the recent medical board hearing, lamented the reinstatement of Rutland's license in 2007, and the board's failure to revoke his license in the wake of Ying Chen's death.

    "I think his victims and the public needed to get full peace of mind today, and they didn't," Kathy Broussard told the Orange County Register. "He still has a practice in Anaheim. He's still allowed to do gynecological exams and consultations. It's appalling." 

    Scott Broussard told the paper, “There’s the making of a mistake, but then there’s the way that it was made and the reaction by him afterward. He was not a man of honor or integrity… The responsibility for this death is on the medical board, to be shared with Dr. Rutland. They’re supposed to protect the public and they have failed.”

    Rutland had regained his license by promising to only work under the supervision of another physician. He chose, and the medical board, approved Dr. Christopher Dotson Jr., who was himself on administrative probation with the medical board.

    Not Without Warning

    Prolifers in California had been complaining since early March of 2009 to the Medical board about Rutland, who was running an abortion clinic in southern California without another physician supervising him, in violation of his board probation. This facility was at the same location as the illegal abortion mill operated by Bertha Bugarin, who had been convicted of performing unlicensed abortions there. Rutland was also reported by prolifers to be operating at another abortion facility in Chula Vista.

    Watch "Safe and Legal Homicide" on YouTube.

    Sources: 
  • Death summary, LA County Coroner's Office
  • Judge: Doctor Who Killed Woman in Botched Abortion Must Stop Doing ThemLife News, January 8, 2010
  • "Doctor is told to stop performing abortions," Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2010
  • Abortion doc banned from doing abortions after death of patient, retains license to practice medicine, Operation Rescue, January 8, 2010
  • California abortionist accused of gross negligence in woman’s deathCatholic News Agency, January 12, 2010
  • "Troubled Doctor Oversaw Another," Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2010
  • "Doctor is accused of violating order," Los Angeles Times, February 18, 2010
  • "Family sues doctor in abortion death," Orange County Register, August 17, 2010
  • Second Amended Accusation and Petition to Revoke Probation, Medical Board of California Case No. D1-2006-176260 (scroll to page 9)
  • "Abortion doctor gives up license again over death," Orange County Register, January 26, 2011
  • Friday, August 02, 2024

    The Abortion Ad Trump Should Do: Fetal Indications

     Please feel free to lift from this script to do your own version of the Life of the Mother ad Trump should be making. This message needs to get out. Just please, provide a linkback.

    Best if you have Trump's voice in your head when you read this.

    Comrade Kamala, she hasn't said much about her polities. Other than to steal mine. She steals mine. No tax on tips. But we know the one thing, one thing you can count on if you elect Democrats, one thing they love. They do. They totally love abortion. Look at what was happening outside the Democrat convention. They had a bus, a bus to do free abortions. Free abortions. Like a door prize. Free abortions. And Democrats were outside that convention dressed up like abortion pills, dancing around. Dancing for abortion. They love abortion. But most Americans, they don't love abortion. Even the ones who think abortion should be legal and available, they don't love it. The don't want people to shout their abortion. "Shout your abortion," that's a thing. Celebrate your abortion. They love it, love abortion.

    And the Democrats, they take advantage of tragic situations. Truly tragic, tragic situations, to try to convince you to love abortion. They take the tragedy of when a loved and wanted baby is diagnosed, diagnosed in the womb, with an illness or a disability. Those parents, it's very sad for them, very shocking, very devastating. They were expecting a healthy baby, a healthy baby, like every family prays for. And the get tragic news, devastating news, that the baby isn't healthy. 

    Now, there's a resource for families that get that kind of tragic news. It's called perinatal hospice. Perinatal hospice. You all know what hospice is. Hospice. When you love and support somebody at the end of their life, you love and support them and their family. You provide medical care when it's appropriate. You provide pain management when it's appropriate. You provide emotional support. You walk beside that person and that family at the most difficult time. That's hospice. A wonderful thing, to be supporting people like that at the end of their lives.

    And what's perinatal hospice? Well, perinatal means the time around birth, shortly before and shortly after birth. So perinatal hospice, that's providing the same kind of care to that baby, to that family, if the diagnosis was made just as the baby was born. If that baby was born, you have that baby in your arms, and that baby has a condition, he can't survive, you don't end his life. You comfort that baby, and you love that baby, and you provide any appropriate medical care to that baby. And that's what perinatal hospice does. It treats that baby with dignity. It embraces that family. That family has a hospice team that's walking through them at that very difficult time, very tragic time, just like any other hospice would support a family through such a difficult time.

    But the doctors, far too many doctors, they don't want to do that. They want this situation to be over with quickly, as quickly as possible. And then the doctor, he can just go on with his life as if this never happened. But it's not like that for the families. It's never like that. It's with them every day, every day, for the rest of their lives. 

    So these doctors, they push for abortion. They push the family, while they're still in shock, still just devastated, still trying to put the pieces of their lives together. Those doctors, they push that family towards abortion. I don't know, maybe these doctors think it's the best thing. Maybe. But these families, they're reeling. And they're looking for guidance. And they're wondering who they can trust. And with perinatal hospice, they get connected with other families, other families that have gone through the same thing. And they can treasure every moment with their baby. 

    But abortion? The family never gets any time to hold and cuddle and love that baby. They don't get to build any memories. And for the baby, it's even worse. Those babies that the families trust the doctor and they schedule an abortion, those babies don't die held and cuddled and loved. They die a death that's not merciful, not merciful at all. I won't even describe it. It's too horrible. Too horrible to even contemplate. And it's heartbreaking, just heartbreaking, to think about those families, later, when it's too late, that they find out how those abortions are done, and the way their baby died. It's criminal, criminal to tell a family that doing that to a baby is a kindness. It's not. It's horrible.

    And sometimes, sometimes the doctors are wrong. They're wrong. We all know of doctors who have been wrong. And sometimes the baby doesn't really have the problem that the doctors thought. Probably you know of a family that was told there was something wrong with the baby, something terribly wrong. And the family chose to go ahead with the pregnancy, and the baby is born, and the baby is healthy. Perfectly healthy. Or maybe the baby does have problems, but not as bad as the doctor thought. But that possibility, of having a baby with less severe problems, or no problems at all, that possibility is gone if the doctor convinces that family to go ahead with an abortion. 

    And it's because the Democrats, they say they love women. Maybe they do, but not as much as they love abortion. Because they won't speak out for women like Marla. 

    So when the Dobbs decision came down -- I put those justices on the Supreme Court, the justices that said Roe vs Wade was a bad decision. Very bad. The Dobbs decision said that the states could decide. Voters in every state could decide. And by doing that, this means that there needs to be public discussion, public debate. People will have a chance to learn about what abortions are, how they're done, and they can decide. They can learn the difference between inducing labor or doing a C-section, and taking extra time, doing extra stuff, extra procedures, to end that baby's life before you end the pregnancy. They can still choose to love abortion like the Democrats do. And that's sad, very sad, that the Democrats love abortion more than they love women. We don't. We love women. And we want them to be having the discussions about what abortion really is, what it really does, and what women really need. And maybe, maybe those states will have so many Democrats that they will choose to protect abortion, like it's something beautiful. But other states, those voters have the chance to say no thank you. We don't love abortion. We love women and we love babies, and when a pregnant woman's life is in danger, we're not going to let some doctor check her into a motel. We're gonna say he needs to check her into a hospital and provide her with the very best obstetric care. 

    Abortion -- it's not great. No matter how much the Democrats love it. And we're going to encourage people to get out and learn about how the abortion lobby has captured the Democrat party. Totally captured it. Putting politics ahead of women, ahead of babies, ahead of families. We urge Americans to learn more about abortion. Learn about it. Debate it. Vote on it. And we trust that eventually, the abortion lobby's stranglehold on Democrat politics will come to an end, and we can build a country where we help women welcome their babies. And that's gonna be through discussion, debate, and the democratic process. Not the Democrat process, which is just to pack the woman off to an abortion clinic, or pull up with a bus and hand out abortion pills like Halloween candy. But the democratic process, where voters hash things out and decide what's really important to them.

    August 2, 1981: Screwed Up Anesthesia and Resuscitation

    Twenty-seven-year-old Robin Renee Wells, divorced mother of three children ages 6, 4, and 2, went for an abortion under general anesthesia by Max Pierre Gaujean at Akron Center for Reproductive Health on July 15, 1981.

    Robin went into cardiac arrest in the recovery room, and was transferred by ambulance to a hospital. She remained in a coma until her death on August 2, 1981.

    Both Gaujean and the anesthesiologist were independent contractors and did not maintain private practices. 

    The suit filed by Robin's survivors alleged that she was overdosed on anesthesia and not properly monitored. It also alleged that staff at Akron Center for Reproductive Health failed "to resuscitate her after her condition had been discovered." 

    The case was settled out of court.

    Watch "Did They Even Try?" on YouTube.

    Summit County, OH, Court of Common Pleas Case No. CV 82 4 1036

    August 2, 1937: Sisters in Medicine Implicated in Abortion Death

    Plenz's ad in the 1904 Chicago Tribune
    Midwife Sophie Mann and her sister, Dr. Gertrude Plenz, were both indicted in the August 2, 1937 abortion death of 25-year-old Mary Kissell, the divorced mother of a little girl. 

    I can only find snippets about Mary's death. Evidently she went to her family doctor after the abortion. He examined her and sent her to Cook County Hospital on July 17, 1937. She died on August 2.  

    Mann, a midwife, preferred instructing her patients to take hot baths, use a hot water bottle on the abdomen, and use a concoction involving vinegar. Dr. Plenz had been implicated in the abortion death of Margaret McCarthy in 1904 and Sarah Cushing in 1905.

    Watch Third Death for Dr. Plenz on YouTube.

    Wednesday, July 31, 2024

    July 31, 1927: The Fifth and Final Victim of Alma Dittman

    Rose Savoren, age 27, travelled from her home in Leadville, Colorado to Denver with a friend named Signe Pearson. They registered at the St. Francis Hotel on July 27. Rose told Signe that she was going on a fishing trip but instead went to St. Anthony's Hospital.

    On July 31, Signe and another friend, Josephine Grige, were summoned to the the hospital because Rose was dying. Rose's sister, Mary Savoren, along with a woman identified as Mrs. S. I. Godman also went to the hospital to be at the dying woman's bedside. Deputy District Attorney Segal also went to the hospital and took Rose's dying statement, implicating midwife Alma Dittman.

    Rose died that day.

    Police found entries about a romance with a man named Jack in Rose's diary. However, police did not believe that Jack was the father of Rose's aborted baby. They told the Fort Collins Express-Courier that they were seeking another man.

    Another woman, 28-year-old Anna Parks, was also arrested but police would not say if she was connected to Rose's death or was arrested for an unrelated crime. William Lindsey was arrested and released after providing police with information about illegal abortion.

    Dittman had already been identified as the abortionist responsible for the death of Mabel Duncan in 1923, Carrie McDonald in 1922, Mabelle Cannon in 1917, and Blanche Ainsley in 1912. According to the Fort Collins Express-Courier, Dittman had been released on technicalities on all of her previous abortion cases.

    Evidently Dittman decided that she could not face another abortion trial. On December 15, a friend went to Dittman's home and found her lifeless on the kitchen floor. She had turned on the gas jets and asphyxiated herself. She had left notes nearby indicating that she was innocent of the crime and feared being convicted.

    Watch Midwife Ends Her Own Trail of Death on YouTube.

    Sources: