Category: Legal Abortion Deaths

The widower of a Wisconsin teacher killed in a safe, legal abortion has filed suit against the hospital training the resident who did the procedure.

Linda Boom, age 35, went to Sinai Samaritan Medical Center in Milwaukee for an abortion on September 21, 1995.

Linda and her husband, Dennis Boom, had married in 1993 and planned to start a family. Linda learned that she was pregnant in June of 1995, but in September elected abortion because the fetus had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Linda’s aunt had Down Syndrome, which Linda believed meant “no life.”

Fourth-year resident Karen S. Watson administered an amnioinfusion. Linda reported pain and said she was “burning up all over.” This is consistent with what a woman might experience during a botched saline abortion.

Watson’s supervising physician, Daniel Gilman, injected more chemicals into Linda’s uterus. Dennis Boom’s attorney, Patrick Dunphy, said that the two injections caused the heart damage that killed Linda 36 hours after the first injection.

Watson did not use ultrasound to guide the needle injecting the poison into Linda, and apparently she injected the chemicals directly into Linda’s bloodstream instead of into the amniotic sac.

The defense, of course, says that there was no negligence. Also, the hospital says that Gilman is responsible for Linda’s death, because he performed the second injection and was supervising Watson. Gilman can’t be named in the suit because the statute of limitations expired before Linda’s husband filed.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Gilman “had performed more than 100 abortions.” Watson has started an ob/gyn practice in Milwaukee.

News coverage of the case does not indicate why Watson and Gilman chose the antiquated instillation technique for Linda’s abortion. Since the late 1960s, nations such as Sweden, Japan, and the Soviet Union had abandoned instillation abortions as being far too dangerous for the mother. US abortionists began abandoning the technique in the mid-1980s.

From Christina Dunigan

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Leigh Ann Stephens Alford, age 34, underwent a safe and legal abortion at the hands of Dr. Malachy DeHenre at Summit Medical Center of Alabama, a National Abortion Federation member clinic, on November 25, 2003.

Leigh Ann was discharged from the clinic 20 minutes after her abortion, according to a lawsuit filed by her husband. Within six hours, he said, he called the facility to report that Leigh Ann was suffering pain and fever. She died about 18 hours after the clinic had sent her home. Death was attributed to hemorrhagic shock from an unrecognized uterine perforation.

DeHenre’s medical license was suspended in Mississippi and Alabama after the death. DeHenre, age 53, also performed abortions at New Woman Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, as well as his own Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization.

Alabama suspended DeHenre’s license as of July 28. The Mississippi suspension was expedited, rather than addressed in a board meeting scheduled for September 16.

An Associated Press article quotes Dr. W. Joseph Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure: “We couldn’t wait another day to take action. He won’t be practicing in Mississippi.”

The Alabama medical board concluded that DeHenre’s practice was conducted in such a way as to “endanger the health of patients,” and found that he had committed “repeated malpractice.”

DeHenre was also investigated after an abortion he performed on March 20, 2003. That patient began to hemorrhage and was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she underwent a total hysterectomy.

DeHenre’s suspension came through in December. He reportedly told board members “My Christmas was ruined!”

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The death certificate indicates that Janyth Caldwell, age 36, died February 4, 1986, a month after George Wayne Patterson attempted to perform a safe and legal abortion on her.

The Alabama state Medical Examiner attributed her death to loss of oxygen to the brain, due to internal hemorrhaging from an ectopic pregnancy.

A proper pre-abortion examination should be able to determine if the pregnancy is ectopic, in which case standard abortion techniques will not touch the embryo. Proper post-abortion pathology reports would detect that no embryo was removed from the uterus, and would clue the abortionist in to the fact that the pregnancy was ectopic. Patterson evidently missed both of these opportunities to detect Janyth’s ectopic pregnancy and prevent her 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. Brenda Vise suffered this fate after getting abortion drugs at a clinic that was operating illegally after having been shut down by Tennessee authorities.

According to official documents, another Alabama woman, Mary Bradley, died after an abortion performed by a doctor identified as Wayne Patterson. The Alabama medical board lists no Dr. Wayne Patterson, only Dr. George Wayne Patterson, deceased, which leads me to believe that the same Dr. Patterson responsible for Janyth’s death had also caused the death of Mary Bradley the year before.

Patterson himself also suffered an early death at somebody else’s hands. He was gunned down outside a pornography theater in an apparent gangland slaying. (The Feminist Majority Foundation, and Revolutionary Worker refer to the slain doctor as “Wayne Patterson”, which is further evidence that he is the same doctor responsible for Mary Bradley’s death. The fact that this organization laments the gangland shooting of an abortionist, while ignoring the fact that he himself had evidently killed two women, underscores where the prochoice movement’s priorities are.)

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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“It was 7pm, we had just finished dinner and settled down to watch the evening news. My husband’s cell phone rang with Laura’s name on the ID. We always loved hearing from her. Laura was so full of life, your spirits were lifted just by talking to her. Except this time it wasn’t her voice. There was guttural screaming and sobbing on the other end by a voice I did not immediately recognize. I heard the words “Laura”, “Hospital” and the worst one, “Not Breathing,” and then “abortion”.

My brain tilted, my heart sank, and life as I knew it ceased. It was Laura’s friend Karen on the phone. She told me what happened, that Laura was having an abortion and something went terribly wrong. Karen was at the ER and the Doctor needed to talk to me. What Karen didn’t know was that Laura had arrived at the ER already deceased. The EMT’s found her this way at the abortion mill. The hospital was looking for next of kin to give the news to first, and Karen wasn’t kin. “Laura’s gone” the doctor told me. I wanted to hear “50-50 chance”…I would even accept “90-10 chance.” But the word “chance” was not in the doctor’s statement. All hope was gone, along with my daughter.”

That call came on September 13, 2007 to Eileen and Tom Smith. Laura had died on a Hyannis, Massachusetts abortion table.

The bewildered couple hadn’t even known that their daughter was pregnant.

Karen and Laura had arrived at Women Health Center in the morning for preparatory steps to abort Laura’s 13-week baby. The two young women were to return in the afternoon for the actual procedure. Laura wasn’t supposed to drive, so Karen drove and the two ran errands. Because Laura wasn’t supposed to eat, Karen fasted with her friend.

They returned to the facility at about 4 in the afternoon and waited. Laura was called in at about 5, back to where Dr. Rapin Osathanondh and his instruments waited for her. Karen stepped out briefly, expecting her friend to be out of surgery in about fifteen minutes. But Laura didn’t emerge from the bowels of the clinic. A worried Karen grew increasingly distressed.

“And then all of a sudden [an assistant] comes out and says she’s not breathing. And I was like, what do you mean she’s not breathing,” Karen told the Cape Cod Times.

Fire department rescuers were dispatched to the clinic at 5:49 p.m., and found an unresponsive patient. They initiated CPR and took her to the hospital. Karen followed, but was not permitted to see her friend. She asked about Laura’s condition. “It doesn’t look good,” she was told. Because next of kin hadn’t been notified yet, the doctor couldn’t tell Karen the truth: Laura was already dead on arrival. It was 6:22 p.m.

“I met with the doctor who aborted my grandchild, and who saw my daughter take her last breath. He would only meet me in a public place, without my husband. We talked for an hour and a half. Based on that meeting I believe I know what happened to Laura. He denies doing anything that caused her death. When we were done talking about Laura, I prayed, and asked God if there was anything He would have me say to the doctor. This is what I said next…. “The blood of my daughter is on your hands; the blood of my grandchild is on your hands; the blood of every life you have ever taken is on your hands,” and I went on from there. He was silent with his head hung low. When I was ready to leave, I asked him if he would think about my daughter, and consider not doing any more abortions. He said he would think about it. When I left there I was praying, and said to God, “Can You stop this man from doing abortions? Is this what You have in mind, that he might even stop doing them?” I was thinking too small. I thought if one girl changed her mind [about having an abortion], I could find some comfort. I then realized that the Lord had much bigger plans. I have never experienced in my life, such tragedy, nor such grace.”

OR also reports that Eileen Smith said she was “appalled and sickened” by her daughter’s death, but can not give more details due to a pending lawsuit against the abortionist.

“My daughter was 22, healthy, and alive when she walked into that clinic,” OR quotes Eileen Smith. “She didn’t even have a cold. There is no reason for her to be dead.”

OR says, “Laura was born into abject poverty in Hondurus on May 25, 1985, and was abandoned at an orphanage. An American couple that adopted Laura abused her terribly and gave her up. Laura was then adopted by Tom and Eileen Smith, a Christian family that lovingly raised Laura in the Cape Cod community of Sandwich.” She graduated from Upper Cape Tech in 2004, trained as a cosmetologist, but she left that field to work in retail management.

Christina Dunigan, who compiled the abortion death’s information, says “It’s particularly sad to me that Laura resorted to abortion despite being a Christian active in her local church. Her mother also reported that Laura was strongly opposed to abortion. Which goes to show that anybody can panic, and our churches need to be teaching young women how to get past the panic that too often leads to the abortion table.”

OR reports that over 600 people attended Laura’s funeral, and at least one young woman decided to reject abortion after learning of Laura’s needless death. National Catholic Register reports that the young woman was being pressured by her parents to abort, and was about to capitulate when she learned of Laura’s fate.

“I know that God is going to bring good out of my daughter’s death. What a horrible thing; for my daughter to be associated with abortion. But, if God’s going to use it for good and for His glory, then so be it. We’re going very public with a very shameful, private thing because I believe God wants to use it to save lives. I believe the truth will come out, and the light of God will shine on this. Laura’s death has had tremendous impact around the country, and even into Canada, without the local news mentioning it. It just came out in the secular media this week- 5 weeks after Laura’s death. I now believe it is my calling to keep telling Laura’s story to the Church, and the world. I naively believed that abortion was not a choice for a Christian girl. A Pastor had even apologized to me and the Lord, for not speaking about this from his pulpit. We both had false assumptions. This is a problem in the Church, and one that needs to be spoken about from the pulpits. We have to take the “A” word out of the closet, put it out in the open, and discuss it. And maybe, possibly, hopefully, we’ll even become active against it. Please keep our family in your prayers, and please tell someone Laura’s story.”

Sources: Abortion Business Death Raises Questions; Mary Ann Bragg, “Parents search for clues in daughter’s unexplained death”, Cape Cod Times, October 21, 2007; “Laura’s Story” Mother’s Account of Her Daughter’s Death in an Abortion Mill, and the Hope She Believes God Will bring out of it”; Aimee Herd, Breaking Christian News, October 29, 2007

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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Claudia Caventou, age 33, underwent a safe, legal first-trimester abortion at Mercy Medical Clinic in Los Angeles on May 8, 1986, performed by H. N. Fahmy.

Claudia’s boyfriend was in the waiting room during the procedure. Staff told him that everything was okay, and suggested that he leave and get something to eat. Since he’d heard Claudia screaming earlier, he decided to stay.

Several hours later, he heard the doctor come out and tell his staff to call 911. Claudia was taken to a hospital where she underwent emergency surgery for what doctors thought was a perforated uterus. It turned out that Claudia’s pregnancy had been in her fallopian tube, which had ruptured during the abortion. Efforts to save Claudia were futile, and she died later that day.

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.

Sources: California Death Certificate # 86-087497; Los Angeles County Coroner’s Report # 86-6084; Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case # C646212

Note: A routine ultraound should have immediately detected the tubal pregnancy before the abortion took place

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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Holly Patterson, age 18, died September 17, 2003, from sepsis caused by a fetus incompletely expelled in a safe and legal medical abortion. Holly got the drugs for the fatal abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California, on September 10.

Rather than follow the recommended protocols for chemical abortions, Planned Parenthood followed the more popular American approach of giving Holly the mifepristone at the facility, then giving her misoprostol to self-administer at home.

Holly had experienced severe cramping and pain, and went to the emergency room. She was examined, given pain medication, and discharged.

At her boyfriends insistence, she returned to the emergency room on September 17, but by then her condition had deteriorated and efforts to save her were futile.

Monty Patterson, Holly’s father, told the San Francisco Chronicle, “The medical community treats this as a simple pill you take, as if you’re getting rid of a headache. The procedure, the follow-ups, it’s all too lackadaisical. The girl gets a pill. Then she’s sent home to do the rest on her own. There are just too many things that can go wrong.”

For an extensive, in-depth look at Holly’s death and the surrounding political firestorm, see: The Making of a Martyr, Holly Patterson’s death.

Three other women were identified as having died of infection deaths after RU-486 deaths in the Los Angeles area: Chanelle Bryant, Oriane Shevin, and Vivian Tran. Chanelle got her abortion drugs at a Planned Parenthood, and Oriane and Vivian got theirs from National Abortion Federation members.

From an open letter by Holly Patterson’s parents:

“Holly was a strong, healthy, intelligent and ambitious teenager who fell victim of a process that wholly failed her, beginning with the 24-year-old man who had unprotected sex with her, impregnated her, and then proceeded to facilitate the secrecy that surrounded her pregnancy and abortion. Under this conspiracy of silence, Holly suffered and depended on the safety of the FDA approved pill administered by Planned Parenthood and emergency room treatment by Valley Care Medical Center where she received pain killers for severe cramping and was sent home. On Saturday and Sunday, Holly cried and complained of severe cramping and constipation, and even allowed us to comfort her but could not tell us what she was really going through. On September 17, 2003, she succumbed to septic shock and died while many members of our family waited anxiously, yet expectantly in the Critical Care Unit for her to recover until we were forced behind the curtain when it was clear that she was dying.

And in those last moments of her life feeling utter disbelief and desperation we formed a circle just beyond the curtain and prayed aloud, cried and screamed, “We love you, Holly” hoping beyond hope that those words would ring out and save her life. And the other members of our family who drove and flew from all over the country to be by her side did not make it in time to say, “I love you” just one last time. Holly was not alone, unloved, unprotected or unsupported; she had a large family who willingly supported her throughout her short life and tragic death.

In the weeks since we buried Holly’s body we are now able to recall and share the memories of our daughter’s brilliant blue eyes, engaging smile, laughter, unwavering determination and sheer gentle beauty that invoked our natural instinct to protect and love her, but we will never be able to forget those last moments of her life when she was too weak to talk and could barely squeeze our hands in acknowledgment of our words of encouragement. “We love you, Holly”, “Just hang in there, the whole family is coming,” “You fight this Holly, you can do it.”

It can be found in its entirety here.

Other Sources # Pregnant teen’s death under investigation
# Investigation Into RU 486 Abortion Death Begins
# California woman’s death re-ignites abortion pill debate
# No Magic Pill
# “Woman dies after taking abortion pill” Philly.com
# “California Teen Dies After Complications From Abortion Pill” ABC NEWS
# Abortion Pill Culprit In Death? CBS NEWS

Credit: Christina Dunigan

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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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