Author: Tech

Maureen Lynne Tyke, a 21-year-old Pennsylvania resident, was in Florida visiting relatives when she went to Aware Woman Clinic in Melbourne for a safe and legal abortion.

The abortion was performed by Dr. John Bayard Britton on May 27, 1983.

About 24 hours after her abortion, Maureen developed nausea, vomiting, and chills. She felt extremely ill.

The next day, she was admitted to the hospital. She had fever and chills, and was extremely weak. Her blood pressure was very low and her skin had turned an unhealthy blue-gray from lack of oxygen to her tissues. Her autopsy later noted that she was “in extreme septic shock.”

Doctors at the hospital performed a complete hysterectomy on Maureen to try to remove what seemed to be the source of the infection. But their efforts were in vain. The raging infection and heart failure Maureen suffered took their toll on her body. Maureen died early on the morning of May 31.

The autopsy found that Maureen had “florid myocarditis, probably of viral etiology [a serious viral infection of the heart].”

The medical examiner added, “The intensity of this myocarditis should indicate that the young woman was very ill and there should have been some signs or symptoms of serious illness at the time she was being prepared for the abortion.”

However, as the autopsy had noted, nobody at the clinic had noticed that Maureen was very ill and in no condition for elective surgery.

On the 10 year anniversary of her death, pro-lifers held a vigil. No pro-choice organization has ever addressed her death, and no abortion rights activist has ever publicly mentioned her case. No pro-choice group has aided her family, or taken part in mourning.

“Clinic’s Patient dies 4 Days after abortion,” Jane Shealy, Florida Today, June 1, 1983; Holmes Regional Medical Center, Legal Investigation, Autopsy Report # A-83-128-LMA, 5-31-83; Florida Certificate of Death # 83-042495; “Pro-life activists mourn woman dead a decade,” Florida Today, June 1, 1993

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Twenty-four-year-old Synthia went to Biogenetics in Chicago for a safe, legal abortion and tubal ligation on September 7, 1989. The surgery was performed by Inno Obasi.

Synthia began to hemorrhage during the surgery. A medical investigation later found that Obasi had “failed to summon help in a timely manner; refused to allow trained and skilled paramedics to attend to Synthia; refused to allow paramedics to transport Synthia to a hospital in a timely manner” and otherwise “allowed Synthia to bleed to death.”

Synthia’s survivors had to file a court order to keep the facility from destroying her records. An autopsy revealed that instead of removing a section of Synthia’s fallopian tube, Obasi had removed a portion of an artery. The autopsy also revealed that Synthia, mother of two, had not been pregnant at the time of her abortion.

Sources: Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 89L 13692; Illinois Department of Professional Regulation Case No. 80-2096; Cook County Autopsy Report Case No. 125 of September 1989; Illinois Death Certificate No. 617111; Associated Press 10/26/89; Chicago Tribune 10/26/89, 12/7/89, 5/3/90, 6/13/90

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Alerte Desanges had been informed that her fetus was deformed, so she went for a safe, legal abortion at Choices Women’s Medical Center in Queens on September 16, 1994. She was 36 years old and 19 weeks pregnant.

The abortion was performed by David Gluck. Staff said that after her abortion, Alerte was “feisty, telling nurses she wanted to go home. Then all of a sudden, she coded, she went into cardiac arrest.”

Her blood pressure fell. Staff attempted to revive her, then transported her to a hospital. Her death was tentatively attributed to amniotic fluid embolism by staff.

Desanges’ 66-year-old mother, who speaks only French, was described as throwing her hands in the air and sobbing, “What are we going to do? What are we going to do? We can’t go back to Haiti.” Desanges supported her mother and three daughters working as a caretaker for an elderly woman, and had just bought a small house in Brooklyn.

Gluck’s license had been revoked for three years after selling controlled substances to finance his gambling addiction. Gluck had also been Medical Director at C.R.A.S.H. when abortion patient “K.B.” died. The Choices clinic director said “We are firmly committed to helping people who are skilled medical professionals who have had a fall from grace.”

Sources: NY Daily News 9-17-94, NY Newsday 9-17-94

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Diana Lopez, age 25, was 19 weeks pregnant when she went to a Planned Parenthood for a safe and legal abortion on February 28, 2002. She was 19 weeks pregnant.

Before the day was over, Diana had bled to death. She left two sons, 4-year-old Frankie and 2-year-old Fabian, motherless. The taxpayers of California paid for the fatal abortion, courtesy of Medi-Cal.

After the abortion, Diana had been rushed by ambulance to County Women’s Hospital, where a hysterectomy was performed and Diana was given five units of whole blood in a futile attempt to save her life.

Diana’s autopsy noted that Diana had hemorrhaged from a perforation of her cervix.

Diana’s husband, David, filed suit, alleging that the abortionist’s haste caused severe lacerations that killed his wife. The suit says that Diana’s abortion was rushed through in ony six minutes, although Planned Parenthood’s own web site says such a procedure should take 10 to 20 minutes.

The lawsuit also blames Planned Parenthood for proceeding with an abortion even though her hemoglobin levels were abnormally low prior to the procedure.

The family’s attorney also noted that in 2000, the same Planned Parenthood rushed another woman though a similar 6-minute abortion, lacerating the patient’s cervix, rupturing her uterus, perforating her sigmoid colon and causing the loss of 2 liters of blood. Planned Parenthood also delayed three hours before transferring the patient to a hospital. Fortunately, this patient survived her ordeal.

A review of Los Angeles County civil cases indicates that this patient was probably Kimberly Thomas, who sued on April 19, 2002, after her abortion by Joseph Marmet. Kimberly’s suit was one of roughly 50 filed against the Los Angeles Planned Parenthood from 1983 to 2002. The medical board took no action against Marmet.

The medical board took no action against Diana’s abortionist, Dr. Mark Maltzer, either. However, the California Department of Health Services investigated the facility and cited Planned Parenthood for:

* Failing to institute a necessary change in medical protocol relating to the use of laminaria (used to expand the cervix) in the dilation and evacuation procedure.
* Lacking the evidence to show a completed assessment of the competency and credentials of the physician who carried out the abortion.
* Inadequately advising against a potentially dangerous second-trimester D&E procedure based on low hemoglobin levels.
* Failing to follow proper surgical abortion policy and procedure by administering Cytotec to the patient on day one of the two-day abortion procedure, when policy requires it to be administered 90 minutes before the abortion procedure.
* Failing to inform Planned Parenthood’s governing body of any adverse outcome related to patient care within the facility.
* Failing to notify the Health Department of a patient’s death within 24 hours of the occurrence.
* Keeping incomplete records describing the services provided to Lopez.

The fact that the Planned Parenthood has made “corrections” to satisfy the state does not satisfy Diana’s family. “It was wrong. It was wrong,” said Judy Lopez, Diana’s older sister. “She was healthy. She was fine.”

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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A lawsuit filed by the father of Barbara Dillon, a 22-year-old college student, alleged that Barbara underwent a safe and legal abortion performed by Dr. Mark Silver at Long Island Gynecological Group April 18, 1981.

Barbara’s father said that the pathology report identified placental tissue, but no fetal parts. This meant that something had gone wrong, and that Barbara needed medical care, but nobody contacted her to tell her this.

Barbara suffered pain and bleeding from May 5. She went to the emergency room and was treated with antibiotics and advised to see her family doctor. She was in severe pain later that day, so her roommates called the emergency room again. They were told to give the antibiotics more time.

Barbara’s pain did not abate. On May 10, her roommates got a neighbor to take Barbara to the university health center. Barbara was unconscious upon arrival, with no respiration, blood pressure, or pulse, and was rushed to the emergency room. There were delays finding a doctor from the clinic who would aid the emergency room physician in addressing Barbara’s symptoms. She went into irreversible shock and died on May 11. It turned out that Barbara had an ectopic pregnancy which the clinic had failed to detect. Barbara’s father also sued Silver over his daughter’s death.

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.

Source: Dillon v. Silver, New York Appellate Court 134 A.D.2nd 159

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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Rudy Alston, stage name Floss, got the page as he sat in the waiting room of Brooklyn Women’s Medical Pavilion on December 1, 1998. Tommy Boy Records had just signed the young rapper to a contract. Alston never got to share the news with his fiance, 22-year-old Tamika Dowdy. She was dying from complications of her abortion.

Staff at the clinic summoned emergency care for a woman with difficulty breathing. Police arrived first, followed by paramedics at 6 P.M. The medics worked to save Tamika, performing CPR, as Alston waited. He’s been waiting since noon.

Alston, age 22, reportedly told the New York Post that a doctor had kept walking in and out of the waiting room, “sweating real fierce and pacing. He did that several times, and then he finally came up to me and said that her heart had stopped. Alston rode by her side to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead the following day.

Alston and Dowdy had lived a floor apart, planning to be married in January or February of 1999. They’d decided on abortion because Dowdy wanted to go to a two-year school to learn accounting so she could handle the finances of Alston’s band, Council. Dowdy had been four months pregnant.

The facility had been in trouble earlier, after an incident on November 14 in which a woman suffered a perforated uterus. The Health Department lost that woman to follow up after she left the hospital. Dowdy’s death was under investigation as of the publication of the New York Post story.

Alston rode by Dowdy’s side in the ambulance from the clinic to the hospital.

Tamika’s 18-year-old brother, Darrel Dowdy, told the Post, “I want that place closed down. I want that doctor arrested for murder.” He described his sister as active in her church. Dowdy and her brother had lost their mother to a heart attack almost a year to the day before Tamika’s death.

When the Post sent a reporter and photographer to Brooklyn Women’s Health Pavilion, they reported, the woman who answered the intercom called security to have them removed.

The Post also noted that the police officials daily report mentioned only the address where the incident had taken place, without mentioning the name of the facility or that a medical procedure had been involved.

According to the NAF web site, Brooklyn Women’s Medical Pavilion was a member facility.

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Carolina Gutierrez died six weeks after her safe and legal abortion. An infection set in from her perforated (cut) uterus. Her gangrenous legs were amputated during that time in an effort to save her life, but she did not survive.

Carolina, who had come to the United States as a refugee from Nicaragua at age 13, was 20 years old when she went to Maber Medical Center in Miami for an abortion on December 19, 1995.

Carolina’s husband did not want her to have the abortion, so Carolina got a friend to drive her back and forth to the clinic.

The evening after her abortion, Carolina had pain in her chest and abdomen. She called the clinic for help, but whoever answered the phone hung up on her.

Over the next two days, Carolina left messages on the clinic answering machine, but nobody returned her calls.

On December 21st, she could hardly breathe, so her family called 911. She arrived at the emergency room already in septic shock.

Carolina underwent an emergency hysterectomy at the hospital to try to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus.

Carolina was put into the intensive care unit, where she battled for her life against the raging sepsis. She was on a respirator, with her fingers and feet going black with gangrene.

Relatives cared for her children, a five-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, while Carolina’s husband spent as much time as he could by her side. “I can’t sleep. I try to take my mind off it, but it’s impossible,” he told the Miami Herald.

Carolina’s 21st birthday came and went as she lay in the ICU. Doctors fought to help the young woman to gain enough strength to undergo amputation of her gangrenous limbs. But despite the hysterectomy, the amputations, and all their other efforts, Carolina died on February 5, 1996.

According to the Miami Herald, abortion clinic regulations were in affect in 1980, but were later thrown out as being “too restrictive.” A less strict code was passed in 1988. According to the Miami Herald, at the time of Gutierrez’s death “Annual inspections for Florida’s 65 licensed clinics [consisted] of six questions — all answered from paperwork, not examination of medical equipment or operating practices or staff training.” Pro-choice groups such as Planned Parenthood typically oppose these regulations and are instrumental in their defeat and repeal

While investigating the clinic, officials noted that although Carolina could not read English, her only consent form was in English — and the line for her signature was blank. She had paid $225 in cash for the abortion that took her legs and her life.

Sources: Miami Herald: “Abortion patient critically ill; state investigates clinic,” January 26, 1996; “A tragic consequence,” February 9, 1996; “Regulate abortion clinics better,” March 1, 1996, “Unsafe but legal,” Newark Star-Ledger, March 14, 1996

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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On November 1, 1991, 21-year-old Anjelica Duarte underwent an abortion by Dr. Larry Thompson at Women’s Place Clinic in Las Vegas, Nevada.

According to one of Anjelica’s friends, Anjelica had sought an abortion because a doctor had recommended that she delay having another baby for five years due to health problems. Anjelica already had a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old daughter.

After the abortion, Anjelica was kept under observation for several hours, but was not given any care.

She was rushed to the hospital by paramedics at 7:30 that evening, but she was dead on arrival.

A hospital spokesman said that she had lost 90 percent of her blood; her uterus had been perforated.

In reviewing the case, the medical board noted that Thompson did not have adequate equipment for post-operative care, and revoked his license.

Anjelica’s was not the only tragic death caused by doctors who recommended (or excused) abortion as a life-saving or health-preserving option for the mother:

* Allegra Roseberry was pushed into an abortion in order to obtain experimental cancer treatment.
* Barbara Hoppert died after an abortion recommended due to a congenital heart problem.
* Christin Gilbert died after an abortion George Tiller holds was justified on grounds of maternal health.
* Erika Peterson died in 1961 when her doctors obtained her husband’s permission to perform a “therapeutic” abortion.
* “Molly” Roe died in 1975 when her doctors made the dubious decision to perform a saline abortion to improve her chances of surviving a lupus crisis.

Sources: “Vegas abortion death investigated,” San Francisco Examiner, November 4, 1991, A-7; “Woman dies after abortion at NLV clinic,” The Las Vegas Review-Journal, November 1, 1991; “Answers sought in abortion,” November 2, 1991; Las Vegas Review-Journal 12-10-91; Washington Times 11-21-91;

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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Former criminal abortionist Milan Vuitch had been operating his clinic without a license for two years when 32-year-old Jeannie English came to him for a safe and legal abortion on January 12, 1980.

Vuitch administered general anesthesia for Jeannie, and she never woke up. She was transported to a nearby hospital where she died. Vuitch settled with Jeannie’s family for $150,000. When Vuitch was investigated, it was discovered that he kept patients overnight in his home (an unlicensed facility) which he designated “The Annexe.” Inspectors also noted repeated violations of medical standards regarding sanitation and anesthesia. Vuitch also admitted during another case that he had lacked hospital admitting privileges since 1963.

Vuitch was also responsible for the 1974 abortion death of 17-year-old Wilma Harris.

Vuitch is one of three abortionists I know of who started out as criminal abortionists with clean records — no patient deaths attributed to them — who went on to kill two patient by performing the supposedly safer legal abortions. They are Jesse Ketchum (Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner) and Benjamin Munson (Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth).

Sources: Washington Times 4/19/84; Washington Post 4/29/86; Washington DC Court of Appeals Case No. 82-1077

By Christina Dunigan

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Suit by survivors of Marla Anne Cardamone, age 18, mother of 1, alleged that Marla became pregnant while on Tegretol and Elavil for depression.

Marla’s mother, Deborah Cardamone, commented:

“Originally, she had planned to put her baby up for adoption, since she already had a toddler to take care of, but a medical-social worker at the hospital strongly urged Marla to have a safe and legal abortion.

The social worker argued that Marla had damaged her baby because of medication she had taken. Statistics gave a 92% chance that the baby was fine, but Marla had a sonogram to be sure. After the sonogram, that social worker kept pressuring Marla to have an abortion. Finally, Marla gave in.”

Marla was admitted to Magee Women’s Hospital for the abortion August 15, 1989.

Although the urea induction technique was contraindicated due to Marla’s medical history, Michael W. Weinberger injected urea into Marla’s uterus.

Either an error during this injection or some other mishap caused generalized necrosis of Marla’s uterine wall. The laminaria were also inserted by Weinberger in a manner resulting in septicemia, and massive cortical necrosis of the kidneys.

Marla became ill during the night, with nausea, vomiting, urinary incontinence, and dried blood on her teeth. Her pulse and temperature were severely elevated.

At 6:30 AM the charge nurse contacted a the first of several doctors to treat Marla, but no were cultures taken.

By 7 AM Marla was “increasingly disoriented and speaking inappropriately.”

By 7:15, her blood pressure had fallen to 80/40, her pulse had shot up to 144, and she was “unresponsive, grunting loudly, and having seizures.”

At 10 AM, intravenous antibiotics were administered. Marla was dead from septicemia at 12:15 PM.

Her mother describes seeing her daughter for the last time:

“Finally, they allowed me to see Marla’s body. When I entered the room, I could hardly believe what I saw. There was my beautiful daughter so horribly disfigured that she was almost unrecognizable. A tube was still protruding from her mouth and I could see that her teeth and gums were covered with blood. Her eyes were half opened and the whites of her eyes were a dark yellow. Her face was swollen and discolored a deep purple. The left side of her face looked like she had suffered a stroke. All I wanted was to hold her. I managed to get an arm around her and kissed her good-bye.”

The suit filed by Marla’s family noted failure to notify them of her deteriorating condition. Marla’s mother and quadriplegic father, who Marla had helped to care for, adopted Marla’s child.

The suit faulted the doctor and hospital with performance of a psychiatrically contraindicated abortion, failure to evacuate the dead fetus, administering an overdose of Pitocin, and failure to consult qualified doctors.

Marla’s mother adds bitterly:

“I had to file a lawsuit to get any answers. Marla had died of septicemia–a massive infection from the abortion. I also learned that the social worker had never seen Marla’s sonogram or discussed the results with her. Marla never saw the words on the sonogram report that would have changed everything: No abnormalities detected. My daughter was pressured to have an abortion, and there had been no reason for it, no reason at all.

I’ve often wondered why pro-choice women’s groups have never expressed any sympathy or concern over Marla’s death. Why aren’t they demanding justice? Why aren’t they concerned that Marla was lied to about the condition of her baby and wasn’t shown the sonogram results? Why aren’t they concerned that proper treatment was delayed because Marla was misdiagnosed by a resident who was only two months out of medical school? Why are they so quiet?

I believe it’s because pro-choice groups don’t want women to read or hear about abortion injuries and deaths. Bad publicity hurts their cause. That’s why they prefer that Marla and her baby remain hidden statistics.”

Regarding the cause of Marla Cardamone’s death, the following quotations were reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on January 14, 1997:

“The parents of an 18-year-old Mt. Lebanon woman who died while having an abortion in 1989 have settled their lawsuit against Magee Womens Hospital and six doctors. The agreement concluded more than five years of litigation…Terms of the agreement were not revealed.”

The paper also reported, “Expert witnesses were to be called during the trial to testify that inexperienced physicians made numerous errors in the abortion procedure, then failed to promptly recognize the symptoms of the infection and arrest it.”

Sources: Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Case No. G.D. 91-14565; American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology Vol. 14, No. 2, 1993; Marla’s Tragic Death

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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