Sixteen-year-old Patty underwent a safe and legal second-trimester abortion at the hands of either Edward Allred or Leslie Orleans at Allred’s Avalon Hospital in Los Angeles on the morning of March 3, 1984. Patty retained fetal tissues, so she was scheduled for a second procedure that afternoon to complete the abortion.
There are conflicting stories as to what happened next. Allred claimed that Patty died of an embolism during the second surgery. (He pronounced her dead at 4:30 PM.) Patty’s parents claim that the child bled to death while left unattended.
An autopsy found numerous catgut sutures in Patty’s vagina and hemorrhage in her uterus. Death was attributed to disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a clotting disorder) due to abortion-induced amniotic fluid embolism (amniotic fluid in the bloodstream). Patty’s parents sued Allred and Orleans for their daughter’s death.
Avalon Hospital was part of Edward Allred’s Family Planning Associates Medical Group, a National Abortion Federation member facility.
Patricia is one of many women to die at one of Edward Allred’s facilities. Others known to have died after abortion at Allred’s facilities include:
* Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970
* Mary Pena, age 43, 1984
* Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985
* Laniece Dorsey, age 17, 1986
* Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, 1988
* Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
* Susan Levy, age 30, 1992
* Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
* Christine Mora, age 18, 1994
* Kimberly Neil, 2000
* Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004
Sources: LA County Coroner Report No. 84-2948; Daily Breeze 3/2/85; Los Angeles Herald Examiner 3/3/85
Credit: Christina Dunigan
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