Author: Tech

Dr. Raymond Showery killed a woman on the abortion table while he was out on bail pending appeal for a murder conviction after drowning a five pound baby born during an attempted abortion. Reporters posing as patients found multiple abuses at his clinic, and he severely injured at least three women.

During an abortion at the Southside Medical Center in El Paso on April 11, 1984, Raymond Showery tore Mickey Apodaca’s uterus and severed her uterine artery. She hemorrhaged for two hours before Showery would allow her transfer to a nearby hospital. She bled to death during emergency surgery to remove her uterus. The prosecution charged that Showery used inadequately trained staff, failed to properly treat the tear, delayed treatment, and delayed Apodaca’s transfer to a hospital. The abortionist refused to provide records to the grand jury on the grounds that they might incriminate him. He was indicted for manslaughter.

He performed this abortion while still on bail pending appeal of his conviction for murder in the case of a late-term aborted baby (weighing five pounds) who survived his 1979 abortion attempt. Showery deliberately drowned the viable baby.

The abortionist was found guilty in 1983 of the 1979 murder of a 7-month preborn child he aborted by hysterotomy. Employees testified that the infant girl had light brown hair, was about a foot long, and curled up in Showery’s hand. An employee saw the infant apparently attempting to breathe as Showery held the placenta over her face. Showery then dropped her into a bucket of water. Employees testified that bubbles rose to the surface. Showery then put her in a plastic bag which was tied and put at the end of the operating room. The bag moved as though someone were breathing in it, then the bag stopped moving. One witness said he was holding the bag Showery put the infant in, and that he later put the bag in the freezer where fetuses were stored. Showery was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, even though the body of the infant was never found and employees could not identify the patient upon whom the abortion was performed. Five former employees testified that they had seen Showery kill the infant. The jury chose to convict for murder even though they had the option of convicting for manslaughter. Despite all the witnesses, Showery denied all the allegations. He said “I never killed a baby, and if I’m not telling you the truth, may I die right now.”

Showery’s license was revoked in the wake of the murder conviction, as well as a 1981 conviction for insurance fraud (keeping the patient’s insurance refund for two abortions). He had been on a 10-year probation since 1981 for inadequate records of prescribed drugs.

Showery had also been convicted of a felony charge of altering his hospital’s records, which hindered state’s attempts to locate the woman whose baby he had drowned. Former employees alleged that Showery falsified records on all patients over 20 weeks pregnant, saying they were all 20 weeks pregnant, and that such abortions were routine. One former employee, Gloria, said she assisted in abortions in which Showery would sedate the patient, dilate the cervix, and pull the fetus out with forceps. “He wanted them in pieces, but a lot of times they would come out whole,” and that she saw signs of life in at least two fetuses aborted this way. Another former employee, Belinda, said she looked away as Showery removed a fetus through a hysterotomy incision, and that when she turned back Showery had placed the fetus in a plastic bag in a bucket “and just waited until it stopped moving.” She said the fetus squirmed and wiggled for about 10 seconds. Former employee Anita alleged that for late abortions, “He walks in, closes the door, and locks it.” She also said Showery instructed them “If you see any movement or anything, you don’t see anything, you don’t know anything,” and that he asked employees to look away when the preborn child was extracted. A former employee said the fetuses would be put in plastic bags and frozen, that employees did not know what became them but that someone removed them from the freezer. An autopsy on a male fetus identified as Baby John Doe #81-01, found among other fetuses in the freezer at Showery’s hospital, was inconclusive as to whether he was born live due to decomposition during thawing. The fetus was just over 2 pounds, just over 13 inches long, with sparse dark hair. The autopsy also found meconium, usually found in the intestine of full-term fetuses. Showery denied ever performing abortions after 20 weeks, and is quoted as saying, “If that baby takes a breath, that’s life. Now the department of vital statistics comes into it and you fill out death certificates. It cried once. It took life. It took breath. It becomes a person. You cannot dispose of it with hospital wastage. It must go to the mortician and et cetera.” The abortion mill where he worked never filed a single fetal death certificate.

Showery claimed indigence and asked the State to pay for his defense in his manslaughter trial in Mickey Apodaca’s death. The prosecution showed that Showery was adept at transferring assets to hide them. His Defense claimed that legal fees had so depleted Showery’s assets he had given one attorney his car and another his boat to pay legal fees. He was said to have traded his shares on Family Hospital for stock in a bogus Mexican mining operation. His sons circulated a letter among doctors and lawyers soliciting contributions to a defense fund. A police report was filed alleging burglars broke into Showery’s house and safe, taking five handguns worth $200-$400 each, two rings worth about $500 each, a charge card, and some keys; police investigating the alleged burglary were hindered by Showery’s attorney’s private investigator who would not allow them to move freely about the home; officers could not find the point of entry into the house, and the safe did not appear to have been forced open. Showery was ordered to pay for his own defense. Showery had also filed for bankruptcy in 1976, claiming debts of about $2 million

In January 1978, Showery aborted patient “Ida.” Soon after, she was told by her physician she was 19 weeks pregnant, so she returned to Showery to complain. He refused to complete the abortion for free as follow-up, telling Ida “he wasn’t Sears. He didn’t have to guarantee his work.” The examination was so painful “Ida” described it as “like he just put his whole fist up there, just jammed it.” Showery told “Ida” “You whores just get in trouble all the time.” Showery performed the second abortion, and “Ida” awoke in a hospital bed in a pool of blood. One week later, she expelled 6 inches of umbilical cord and “a small, bloody four-fingered hand.”

Showery also aborted “Cora,” who woke up several hours after the abortion and was sent home. After complications set in, another gynecologist rushed her to an emergency room, where it was found she had fragments of the placenta in her bladder. Surgery revealed air and over two pints of fluids in her abdominal cavity, a 3/4-inch puncture of her bladder, and a 4-inch laceration of uterus and cervix. The gynecologist described her injuries as “very, very bad. If she had not come to the hospital … she may have suffered severe shock, or worse, irreversible shock, from which you don’t return. Death or a vegetative state.”

The abortionist’s patients were urged to abort immediately because the price of abortion increased $50 each week. Showery’s staff report that he told them during “slow weeks” not to run pregnancy tests but to make them all positive. Patients who needed time to get the money were told to ignore any vaginal bleeding, “that the onset of a seemingly normal five-day menstrual period means nothing.” The staff even fudged ultrasound tests to convince patients they were pregnant. One undercover agent reported alleged that, when her pregnancy test was negative, the ultrasound technician told her she was failing to menstruate due to a “mucous sac” which Showery could remove with a D&C. Another reporter alleged that she was told she had mucous plugging her cervix and Showery must do a $265 D&C to remove it. Another reporter was told the ultrasound showed a 10-12 week fetus, although an OB/GYN examined her and determined her later not to be pregnant. One reporter was menstruating at the time of her test and visit, and reported that Showery told her she was likely pregnant and to return in two weeks. Showery denied having anything to do with pregnancy testing.

Showery “criticized the extensive counseling given in other abortion programs, saying it is frightening and unnecessary, and that counseling at Family Hospital is minimal.” He said that “I’d do it just like that. If you sit down with a woman and counsel her all day long about abortion, she will probably say, “I’ve had enough,” and leave.” A reporter posing as a patient alleged: “I was not told of any risks. I was advised only of the cost of the procedure and the necessity for an appointment.” When she returned with an editor posing as her husband and requested counseling from Showery, he told them, “We just put that sucker [abortion suction machine] in there and bam.”

In an April 1981 news report, Showery said that “To my knowledge we have never had a serious problem or complication.”

The local Rape Crisis lines eventually stopped referring to Showery’s abortion mill due to the many complaints against him.

Reporters working on an investigation of Family Hospital alleged that, on March 3, 1981, “Showery followed them in his car and repeatedly veered toward their automobile, forcing them to the curb.” They pressed charges and he was arrested. The District Attorney’s office protested Showery’s release on bond during trial for Mickey Apodaca’s death because he’d threatened the prosecutor, a police detective, and a reporter covering Mickey’s death. The detective said that “If I can make just one positive statement, it’s that witnesses at the time showed that Dr. Showery was abusing drugs. And drugs can and will cause major changes in anybody.”

On March 10, 1981, the abortionist was charged with operating a child placement agency without a license. The charge stemmed from a woman’s adoption of a baby born at Family Hospital in December. She paid Showery $3,000 according to receipts, and he claimed the money went toward the maternity fees of the biological mother.”

On March 6, 1979, Showery agreed to a permanent injunction, in essence admitting to such infractions as increasing his abortion prices after quoting a lesser total, refusing refunds, telling patients they required services actually not required, offering inferior maternity care as compared to the care he promised, and employing incompetent, unqualified and unlicensed persons to perform services which by law are required to be performed by licensed doctors and nurses. In May 1980, the Attorney General’s office filed an amended petition alleging Showery had violated the final injunction.

The state filed suit claiming Showery owed $167.42 in personal property taxes, and a jewelry store filed suit in 1976 for failure to pay a balance of $5,405 on two Rolex watches and some jewelry. The owners of a building where Showery had an office filed suit against him, claiming that “Showery owed $2,000 in rent … and that the doctor had taken doors, cabinets, draperies and office fixtures that he did not own. The report noted that all doors had been removed from their hinges. One of the building owners said Showery even removed light switches. They said that Showery left the premises “in a shambles,” but dropped the suit because Showery was “judgement-proof.”

A news story found that “His money is funneled into a growing art passion. He particularly loves the huge, sexually explicit surrealistic works of Raymond Douillet.” Showery owned a number of works valued at from $40,000 to $50,000. “One of the Douillet paintings, which Showery said capture women “as they essentially are,” depicts several nude women leaning forward with paint-brushes protruding from their rumps.”

According to another news story, Showery is “an Adolph Hitler aficionado” who owns “quite an arsenal” of guns and read voraciously about Hitler. Showery said that “Hitler was one of the most misunderstood men in history. He was really a great man.”

A prominent El Paso physician told reporters he recommended Showery for medical school. When contacted by reporters, the physician asked that he not be named. Showery didn’t finish his residency at Latter Day Saints Hospital because he reportedly “was dismissed from the hospital for showing a disregard for nursing staff.”

Showery served as a part-time physician at the Planned Parenthood Center of El Paso during the mid- 1970s.

References: Associated Press, July 20, 1989; El Paso County Offense Report #00-380101; New York Times, April 29, 1984; Des Moines Register, May 5, 1984; El Paso Times, April 5, 6, 7, and 8, 1981, September 22 and 23, 1983, and April 7, 24 and 26, May 7 and June 5, 1984; Dallas Morning News, April 18 and 20 and May 3, 1984; Longview Morning Journal, May 6, 1984; Dallas Times-Herald, April 14, 1984 and September 29, 1983; Houston Chronicle, June 9, 1985; “Doctor Gets 15 Years in Infanticide Case.” ALL About Issues, November 1983, page 35; At Deadline. “Convicted Abortionist Now Charged With Manslaughter in New Tragedy.” ALL About Issues, June 1984, page 47; Debra Braun. “Abortionist Sentenced to 15 Years for Murdering Baby After Abortion.” National Right to Life News, October 13, 1983, pages 1 and 13.

In August 2004, abortionist Eric A. Buffong was arrested twice for rape, aggravated sodomy and sexual battery committed against his patients.

The Composite State Board of Medical Examiners signed an August 30, 2004 order suspending the abortionist’s medical license and stating that “Dr. Eric A. Buffong’s continued ability to practice as a physician poses a threat to the public health, safety, and welfare and imperatively requires emergency action …”

Also, police in Jacksonville, North Carolina, have said they are resuming a 1997 rape case involving another of Buffong’s patients.

The State Board’s suspension order cited a fourth allegation from another woman who claimed that Buffong raped and sodomized her after he performed a hysterectomy, and passed on a venereal disease to her.

References: “Second Woman Accuses Gynecologist of Sexual Assault.” Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, August 21, 2004; “Gynecologist Held Without Bond in Assault Case.” Marietta [Georgia] Daily Journal, August 23, 2004; Christopher Boyce. “Board Suspends Doctor’s License.” The Ledger-Enquirer, September 10, 2004.

Source: AbortionViolence.com

In January of 2005, The California Medical Board revoked the license of abortionist Glenn E. Miller in repsonse to findings during Medical Board of California Case # D1-1996-70206

The board accused Miller of being intoxicated while on duty.

In 1997, Miller was having so much trouble controlling his drinking that it became apparent to fellow employees. The case details that even though Miller repeatedly entered rehab programs he continued to relapse into drinking. In 1998 a psychiatric evaluation of Miller established,
“That there existed a high likelihood of danger to patients if treatment were unsuccessful.”

The Golden Gate Planned Parenthood Group later employed Miller in the Bay area. In December of 1998, despite Miller’s history of intoxication, the Women’s Community Medical (abortion) Clinic in San Jose also employed him for the purpose of surgical procedures relating to abortion.

On July 3, 2000, according to the report of his diversion program manager, Miller was “brought in drunk and passed out at White Memorial Hospital’s ER this weekend.”

On June 12, 2003, he again tested positive for alcohol while in the employment of The Women’s Community Medical (abortion) clinic. He blamed the result on something he had eaten, but was ordered to cease practicing medicine for six months. Miller continued to drink and in one occasion after failing to show up for a urine test, Miller was contacted by telephone and appeared “totally incoherent.”

Miller later enrolled into a program where Miller claims his therapist failed to treat him for issues relating to his past (he claimed he was abused as a child). In an interesting revelation, Miller’s therapist diagnosed him as having a sexual addiction and recommended that Miller never be able to treat a female patient.

Bertha Bugarin, owner of several abortion clinics that employed Miller testified in the case that Miller was in her estimation:

“responsible, punctual, and professional”

and despite the overwhelming evidence of Miller’s addictions,

“would welcome Miller back into her abortion clinics.”

Credit; Life Dymanics

The Associated Press reported in an article that appeared in the Birmingham News,Abortion doctor lost at gambling, probers say (09/03/93), that abortionist George Wayne Patterson had over $80,000 in gambling debts before he was killed in a Mobile, Alabama parking lot located in the nightclub district, right outside an adult theater.

In his Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, Patterson reportedly said his gambling losses for the previous year totaled $50,000. He owed at least three bookies $80,000.

George Wayne Patterson was responsible for the deaths of two women from botched abortions.

While many people from many walks of life have gambling problems, it is possible that the stress of Patterson’s job may have contributed to his irresponsible behavior. Many abortionists have spoken about the such as seeing the torn apart bodies of aborted children every day.

On November 17, 2004, the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board reviewed the application for medical licensure submitted by abortionist Vinod K. Goyal.

In their findings The Wisconsin Board noted that in 1992 and 1993, the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation (IDPR) received four complaints from insurance carriers alleging that Goyal’s clinics had provided inaccurate information regarding charges for services.

Goyal entered into a stipulation for settlement with the IDPR to resolve the complaints. As a part of the settlement, Goyal agreed to revise his office intake forms to avoid future problems with inaccurate fee quotes, to desist in efforts to collect unpaid fees in connection with the inaccurate fee quotes, and to pay a monetary fine of $4,000.00. In addition, the IDPR placed Goyal’s medical license on a two-year probationary period.

In 1996, Goyal agreed to a reprimand by the IDPR in connection with possible misleading statement made by him during a proceeding involving a Certificate of Need application for relocation of his medical office. Goyal wanted to open an abortion clinic in Arlington Heights and told the Illinois Health Facilities Board he needed to move the clinic from Des Plaines to Arlington Heights because of “abhorrent conditions. ”

Dennis Tobin, Goyal’s attorney told the Chicago Daily Herald, (Doctor fined for exaggerating poor conditions at his clinic 11/13/97), Goyal was dissatisfied with how much money he was shelling out to fix problems at the building, which they claim the landlord would not take care of. Goyal lied when he told the Illinois Health Facilities Board that the building was full of rodents and dirty rooms, placing his abortion patients in jeopardy. The lie was a scam for profit reasons alone.

Illinois Health Facilities Board member Richard Wright recalls Goyal showing pictures of flood damage at the hearing.”I recall thinking, ‘If it is so bad, why are you still practicing there?’ ” Wright said. That is why board members decided to send a transcript of Goyal’s statements to the regulation board who visited the site for themselves.

Spokeswoman Maureen Squires said the inspectors did not find rodents or dirty rooms as Goyal had described. They found no patients to be in jeopardy. Although he was fined, it does not mean he can not practice medicine, she said. “It is a black mark on his record and any employer or patient can check it,” she said. “It will remain as a permanent mark.”

In a signed consent order, Goyal admitted the statements he made about the physical condition of the Des Plaines facility were misleading. Goyal was assessed a $2,000.00 fine in connection with the disciplinary action against his license.

Beginning in 1978 and through 1996, a report provided by the IDPR indicates nine malpractice claims had been filed against Goyal. The majority of the suits were settled out of court by the insurance carrier. Goyal was dismissed as a party in at least three of the malpractice actions because he was not directly involved in the patient care.

Source: Life Dynamics

On August 8, 1990, on the basis of his history and the practice of cocaine abuse, abortionist Colin Bailey entered into a voluntary agreement with the NY State Department of Health, Bureau of Professional Misconduct to remain drug free and to have his urine randomly tested. The following incidents occurred prior to and after the date of this agreement.

— September 6,1989: during a physical, Bailey’s urine tested positive for cocaine and he was suspended from Metropolitan Hospital.

— Bailey used cocaine the week following his suspension and at least once 6 months after he was suspended from Metropolitan Hospital.

— In 1991: Bailey’s urine tested positive for cocaine, January 7th and January 15th .

Bailey was charged with negligence on more than one occasion, gross incompetence, drug dependence, and fraud.

Bailey admitted to the charges of negligence, incompetence; practicing fraudulently; being dependent on cocaine and failing to maintain accurate records.

Source: Life Dynamics and commissioner’s report

Why get copies of health department and medical board documents? How else can you find out what the abortionist has in his refrigerator? And abortionist Benjamin P. Thamrong had some of the strangest stuff in his.

Thamrong first came to my attention when somebody sent a clipping of the North Jersey Herald & News for December 22, 1989. A woman said she’d met Thamrong when he performed an abortion on her in 1977. He hired her as a receptionist and had an extramarital affair with her. She alleged that it was his mistreatment of her that prompted her to throw their 2-year-old son to his death from the top of an apartment building, then leap herself.

Thamrong originally opened his facility in 1981, in an area of Fairfield Township not zoned for clinics. Thamrong filed six $1 million lawsuits against the township and its officers, demanding hearings to prove that the facility, which he advertised as a clinic, was actually his private office. The hearings found that the North Jersey Women’s Health Organization (WHO) leased the building, owned the equipment, hired and paid staff, handled all the financial arrangements, and had written a manual classifying the facility as a clinic. Thamrong and WHO officer Susan Hill protested that the manual wasn’t something anybody actually followed, and that they actually made all their arrangements verbally. The hearing also uncovered irregularities in Thamrong’s federal tax returns, such as claiming WHO’s expenditures as his own business expenses.
So before we even check with the powers that be, we find a crazed former abortion patient turned receptionist/lover who killed their child then tried to kill herself, we find dubious business practices, and we find evidence of federal income tax evasion.

Looking closer

We checked to see what other strangeness had been going on around Dr. Benjamin P. Thamrong. From a New Jersey Administrative Complaint filed October 3, 1989, we learned the following:

A patient I’ll call “Bianca” had abortion done by Thamrong in his office on January 14, 1988. On January 17, she passed a fetal head. A medical examiner estimated the head as from an 18 to 22-week fetus. Bianca’s records were subpoenaed January 22. On January 28 a lab picked up a specimen from Thanmrong’s office, labeled with Bianca’s name, containing a specimen of a 6-8 week fetus. The health department obtained Bianca’s chart from Thamrong. “The chart was completely typed with no handwritten entries and indicated that [Bianca] was only 12+ weeks pregnant.” The wrong blood type was entered in the chart. The board alleged violation of a law limiting abortions done in doctors’ offices to less than 16 weeks of gestation. It also alleged the submission of falsified records and “employment of dishonesty, fraud, deception or misrepresentation.”

Concerning another patient I’ll call “Rachel,” the board noted that during 1986 Thamrong issued 19 prescriptions each for 30-day supplies of Seconol and 40 Percodan for Rachel, but he maintained no patient record for her. In 1987 he prescribed at least 14 prescriptions each for 30 Seconol and 40 Percodan for Rachel. Over a 32-day period in 1988 he gave Rachel prescriptions for 120 doses of Seconal and 160 doses of Percodan. The board said, “The dispensing of Seconal and Percodan to [Rachel] was done without medical justification with an apparent lack of regard for the significant abuse potential of this drug and with gross disregard for the life, health, safety and welfare of said person.” The complaint also leveled additional charges of prescribing similarly excessive amounts of controlled substances to at least six other patients, usually without office visits. “Many if not most of [Thamrong’s] patient records are difficult to read or follow and are sketchy at best. It is difficult to tell how he arrived at the diagnoses and the plans for treatment almost never look beyond the immediate prescription of medication.”

The complaint also noted that records for at least nine patients showed virtually identical vital signs. “Virtually all respiratory rates were 20, virtually all pulse rates were 70, the vast majority of temperatures were exactly 98.6, and the vast majority of blood pressures were either 120/80 or 110/70, totally out of line with the normal expected day to day variations in vital signs, indicating that respondent did not accurately measure them or did not measure them at all.”

The complaint also noted Thamrong’s failure to promptly deliver patient records in response to the subpoena, with extensions and delays of in some cases over three months. Some patient records sent in response to the subpoena had been altered or added to since they had been observed during the inspection. For example, patient “Ophilia’s” file at the time of inspection recorded three visits, with information largely limited to her name and the date. The records forwarded in response to the subpoena were completely filled out, including the addition of an abortion procedure form, a note on Ophilia’s Rh-negative blood, and lab reports.

The complaint also covered an inspection of the abortion facility itself. The complaint noted:

The cover of the examination table was dirty and torn. The suction machine container and tubing were dirty and stained. Thamrong’s abortion patients were treated in procedure room replete with unsterile instruments, expired supplies, soiled gauze, a dirty speculum, and soiled suction tubing. The facility had no emergency equipment.

Patients were sent for recovery to a room that contained two recliner chairs, a disused autoclave, a tray full of instruments to be sterilized — and nothing that could be used to check their blood pressure.

And let’s not forget the refrigerator. It contained: expired medications, three syringes, a dirty carving knife, a specimen envelope containing a tube of blood collected 22 days earlier, one mostly-eaten salad, one partially-empty bottle each of Coca Cola and Sunkist soda, a bottle of Yoo Hoo, a half-full bottle of Riuniti peach wine, and a quarter-full bottle of Asti Spumanti with a paper towel stuffed in the top.

Aside from the question of why medical specimens and staff lunches were kept in the same fridge, I couldn’t figure out if this guy was a tasteless tippler, or a dropout from the Belfast School of Bartending. And who, pray tell, was slurping down Riuniti on the premises of a medical practice? And was this imbibing taking place before or after the patients were led into the unsavory procedure room?

The complaint also alleged that Thamrong had been falsifying insurance forms.

Thamrong was sentenced to four years’ probation for billing Medicaid for abortions patients had already paid for. He was also fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $12,088 in restitution — despite his plea that he was deeply in debt and that he’d find it a hardship to pay.

And how did Thamrong respond, once his faults had been discovered? He presented health department inspectors with gift-wrapped boxes of money (one containing $1,000 and one containing $500). The investigators reported the transaction as an attempted bribe. Boxed in, Thamrong finally surrendered his license.

And lest you dismiss Thamrong as a fly-by-night flake, I’ll take a minute to remind you that he was operating under the auspices of the Women’s Health Organization — which has been, and still may be, a National Abortion Federation member organization. WHO “was founded in 1976 with the goal to provide exceptional medical services to women in a safe and comfortable environment,” says their Web site. “All clinics” it goes on, “comply with Federal, State and Local regulations and meet or exceed all medical standards.”

Did NAF and WHO know what kind of place this was, or did they just not care?

Sources: New York Daily News 7-13-92; New Jersey Administrative Complaint filed 10-3-89; North Jersey Herald & News 12-22-89; The Chronicle 10-20-82, 2-9-83, 3-16-83, 3-23-83, 3-2-84

Article by Christina Dunigan.