Researcher Keven Sherlock tells the story of Cora Mae Lewis, who died due to complications of a legal abortion:
“[Cora Mae Lewis, a] 23-year-old black woman died December 3, 1983, a month after she underwent an abortion at Inglewood Women’s Hospital. Complaining of fever, chills, and chest pains after the November 4, 1983 abortion, Cora went to a hospital November 11.
A staffer diagnosed her as suffering from pneumonia; she underwent surgery a couple of times. Cora last underwent lung surgery in the early morning of December 3, 1983; she died later that day. A doctor at the hospital pronounced her dead at 6:25 PM; he did not list the cause of death.
According to her autopsy report, Cora died of pneumonia and a lung abscess. The report listed cervicitis (inflammation of the cervix) and chronic endometritis (inflammation of the uterine lining – she was suffering from gonorrhea at the time of her abortion) as contributing causes of her death.
The examiner noted her cervix was damaged and her uterus was covered with yellowish discharge. The report said Cora underwent “a D&C under general anesthesia at Inglewood Women’s Hospital.”
Cora’s family, in a lawsuit against Inglewood Women’s Hospital, noted Morton Barke, Stephen Pine, and/or Bruce Schiffman performed the abortion on Cora. They accused the trio of handling Cora so negligently that she aspirated (inhaled her own vomit and/or mucus) and developed a lung infection as a result.
A doctor who reviewed Cora’s records said Cora, who was 15 weeks pregnant, was given general anesthesia for the abortion. He said staffers involved with Cora’s abortion failed to intubate her, which led her to aspirate, and the aspiration caused the lung infection that led to her death.
He also said Inglewood Women’s Hospital staffers were substandard for refusing to let her stay in their “recovery room” for more than seven minutes.
Cora’s family’s lawyer also testified he checked on the credentials of Yvonne Sias, the Inglewood Women’s Hospital staffer who gave Cora an anesthetic before the abortion.
He said Sias did not become a certified nurse anesthetist until nine months after she put Cora under. He accused people connected with Inglewood Women’s Hospital of deceit when they implied she was licensed at the time of Cora’s abortion.”
Los Angeles County coroner Case No. 83 – 15079 and Los Angeles County Superior Court Case No. SWC73020
Kevin Sherlock The Scarlet Survey (Akron, Ohio, Brennyman Books, 1997) 104 – 105
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