You can sue for abortion injuries! Call 1-800-U-CAN-SUE
If you or someone you know has been physically injured by abortion, expert legal advice is available. You may want to consider suing the abortionist for damages. Many cases have already been won on behalf of injured women and women killed by abortion. Many abortion "clinics" have also been closed.
Abortion may be legal, but "consenting to an abortion" does not prevent you from suing for malpractice. If you've been injured, you have legal rights and you may be compensated through the courts. TIME IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE. There is a statute of limitations that varies from state to state. You need to find out your legal rights as soon as possible!
Help is available. For more information, call:
1. Legal Action for Women 1-800-U-CAN-SUE (That's 1-800-822-6783 9am to 9pm EST)
2. Amshoff, Donovan & Smith, P.C., 1-800-203-1950 (9am to 5pm EST)
3. Life Dynamics, Inc. 1-800-401-6494 (9am to 5pm Central Time)
4. American Rights Coalition, 1-800-634-2224 (9am to 5pm EST)
Botched Abortions . . .Women Injured and Killed by Abortion
Botched abortions happen more frequently than you may be aware. Below are the stories of women who died or were severely injured because of their abortion.
Abortionist Ordered to Pay $10 Million
The New York Times reported on April 24, 1994, that Dr. Thomas Tucker, II, had been the subject of two criminal investigations. One involved the death of a patient in Birmingham, Alabama and the other regarding allegations that he killed a newborn moments after it was born alive. An abortion involving a "live birth" is commonly referred to as a "complication." Abortion may be legal, but infanticide in NOT!
His medical license was suspended and the news made national headlines. He was the focus of feature articles in USA Today (7/17/94), The New York Times (4/24/94) and Time Magazine (8/9/93).
He performed 70% of the abortions in Mississippi and also performed abortions at 2 clinics in Alabama.
In 1991, Dr. Tucker performed an abortion on an Alabama mother of 5. He was advised (by his staff) against doing the abortion, due to the fact that she had a fever, and her hemoglobin levels were low, which could lead to excessive bleeding.
He replied ... "You know we need the money. Just do it. Just put the patient through."
After the abortion, she had difficulty breathing, her blood pressure dropped, and she bled excessively. Dr. Tucker gave her medications and then deactivated the pulse oximeter and blood pressure monitor alarms, which were sounding off. He had her taken to a recovery room that had no equipment for monitoring vital signs, because he needed the room to perform more abortions.
When her condition worsened, a staff member called an ambulance. According to testimony given, Dr. Tucker canceled the ambulance because,
"he could not afford to send another patient to UAB because
doctors down there would hang him."
She continued to bleed and a staff member told the doctor, "I want you to do something. She is going to lay there and die."
An ambulance was called, but Dr. Tucker left the clinic before the ambulance arrived. He had an airplane to catch. The patient was taken to University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital where she died 3 days later.
Upon learning of the lawsuit against him, Dr. Tucker attempted to destroy the records by setting them on fire, which set off the fire alarms. Fearful of the fire department finding them, he handed them to a staffer with instructions to take them home and destroy them. She kept them for 2 years and then produced them for this suit.
The patient's family was awarded $10,000,000 after the court found it "difficult to imagine a case more appropriate for an award of punitive or exemplary damages."
The family of the victim was represented by Theodore H. Amshoff, Jr., of AMSHOFF, DONOVAN, & SMITH, P.C. Mr. Amshoff said, "This award cannot bring this mother back to her family, but it demonstrates the enormous injury sustained by her 5 orphaned children, and sends a clear signal that shoddy and unsafe medical practices will not be tolerated."
Following are articles which ran in . . .
The Abortion Injury Report – November 1990
(A Publication of the American Rights Coalition: 1-800-634-2224)
$5 Million Awarded to Abortion-Scarred Woman
On June 1, 1990, the 5th District Court of Appeals upheld a $5 million judgment award to Lillian Lawson of Dallas, Texas. The abortion was done by Dr. Robert L. Gardner at the Metroplex Gynecological Group.
In the words of Justice Charles Howell, "Gardner punctured Lawson's uterus with an instrument, causing a laceration. He then grasped the lower intestine and bowel with his forceps and pulled them through the laceration in the uterus and out through the cervix.
Seven hours later, Lawson was taken to Presbyterian Hospital, where Gardner admitted to personnel that he had ruptured the uterus, injured the bowel, and brought the intestine through the cervix with his forceps.
Doctors at Presbyterian Hospital then repaired the damage to the uterus and performed a colostomy. Lawson testified that she had to wear a colostomy bag for seven months. At the end of this period, doctors performed yet another procedure to reconnect the colon."
When she first told Gardner that she was experiencing pain, he continued the abortion procedure, telling her to relax. Shortly thereafter, Gardner punctured her uterus. After she was injured, she was left on a table with her legs in stirrups for seven hours before she was transported to Presbyterian Hospital.
(Quoted from Affirmation of Judgment, Justice Charles Howell, 5th District Court of Appeals, Dallas, Texas, 05-90-00095, June 1, 1990).
Abortionist Convicted
(Quoted from the AP Wire Service, June 14, 1989)
(Philadelphia) A judge convicted an obstetrician of infanticide Monday for failing to try to keep alive a baby whom witnesses said survived for about 90 minutes after a 1984 abortion on a 13-year old girl.
Paralyzed Abortion Victim Files Suit
(Quoted from the front page of The Washington Post, August 13, 1990)
Susanne Renee Logan was three months pregnant when she went to Hillview Women's Medical Surgical Center for an abortion. She was given Brevital, an anesthetic meant to lure her to sleep during the procedure.
Minutes after the drug entered Logan's system, her throat tightened, restricting her breathing and cutting off oxygen to her brain, rescue records show. Eight minutes later, paramedics at the District Heights Volunteer Fire Department received a high priority call: a woman was unconscious; she had no pulse.
In sworn statements contained in a lawsuit Logan has filed, paramedics said that the 32-year-old woman was blue and in cardiac arrest when they arrived. Paramedics said clinic personnel attempted to revive her with a medicine that medical experts say has no effect on reversing the reaction to Brevital. Clinic workers had tried to resuscitate her with oxygen equipment that was not working. An oxygen mask placed over her nose and mouth was upside down.
After four months in a coma, Logan, who suffered extensive brain damage in the Sept. 9 incident, is almost completely paralyzed. The former waitress cannot walk or talk and communicates by tapping out her messages on an electronic keyboard with her left hand, over which she has limited control.
Logan and her family have filed suit against clinic owners Barbara P. and Benjamin Lofton and physician Gideon M. Kioko, alleging that clinic workers were not sufficiently trained to treat and monitor her while under the anesthetic or to resuscitate her during an emergency. The suit also says that emergency equipment was not available or working.
(Kioko and Lofton said they have also been interviewed by board investigators about the death of Debra M. Gray, a 34-year-old woman who, according to a medical examiner's report and paramedic records, went into cardiac arrest while under general anesthesia at the clinic.)
Today, Logan lives at the Inns of Evergreen, a rehabilitative nursing home in Baltimore, after spending three months at Good Samaritan Hospital. Her father and stepmother, Robin and Peggy Logan, are trying to make arrangements to move her back to her home in California. Her medical bill, according to her father, is approaching $500,000: Medicaid will pay part of it.
In 1986, the Loftons opened a family planning clinic on the site of their closed mental health clinic, and in March 1987, they began offering abortions at the 25 M Street SW address, according to city records and Lofton. In an investigation, officials found that the clinic did not have a license required under city law to perform surgery, particularly abortions.
Teresa Causey: Dead at 17 after Abortion
State Suspends the License of Macon Doctor
(Quoted from the Macon (GA) Telegraph and News, September 7, 1990)
The Composite Board of Medical Examiners agreed Thursday to accept a hearing officer's recommendation that Macon physician Joe Daniel, Jr's medical license be suspended.
If the decision stands, Daniel's license will be suspended for five years – with all but six months of that suspension "stayed." For the remaining four and a half years, his license would be put on probation.
That means for the first six months he would not be allowed to practice medicine at all. Afterward, until another order from the board – even if beyond the five-year period - he could practice medicine but would be barred from performing surgery.
The case stems from the death of 17-year-old Macon resident Teresa Causey following an abortion at Daniel's office. After a two-day hearing in May, Andersen found that Daniel's care for Causey fell below accepted medical standards.
Authorities Close Another Abortion "Clinic"
The East Tennessee Women's Clinic of Knoxville, Tennessee, was closed by authorities on May 24, 1990. The deficiencies listed in the State Licensing Survey and another earlier inspection include:
"The medical records of East Tennessee Women's Clinic were found stored in an upstairs closet. The clinic had neither a filing system, nor a retrieval system."
"There was no indication, in any of the cases, that the physician had performed a physical examination of the patient before beginning the abortion procedure."
"Alcohol-soaked sponges were stored in a plastic ice cream container."
"An instrument tray contained a sponge and tooth forceps from which greenish-black debris fell when handled…In another room, intravenous needles were found on the floor, as were packages of suction curettage tips in a box that also contained dead bugs."
"In the first treatment room, a brownish-red residue was found on the floor. In the second treatment room and the waiting room, the dirt appeared to have built up and the inspector described the floor of the instrument cleaning room as "blackened." The floors of the recovery room and the janitor's closet had cobwebs and dead insects. The dressing room floor had several cigarette butts.
"In Treatment Room 1, brownish-red stains were noted on walls and on patient drapes in an open drawer under the examining table. In the instrument cleaning room, similar stains and red-brown tissue had dried up to the sides and base of the utility sink."
"In Treatment Room 2, the janitor's closet, and the waiting room, the lavatories were dirty. The Treatment room had only bar soap and no paper towels, but the other three lavatories had neither soap, nor towels."
"The recovery room held four beds and although the facility had not performed any procedures since the Monday before the Friday inspection, two beds had soiled sheets and blankets with dust and hair strands on them. Surveyors could find no other linen in the facility and the other two beds were unmade, exhibiting mattresses with large reddish-brown stains."
"In the kitchen area…the microwave oven…held a fast-food bag which emitted a foul odor and contained a gray and green fur-covered object."
"In the 'instrument cleaning room,' the sink counter held red-stained rubber gloves, two blackened sponges, a blackened-brownish cloth, and a dozen suction curettage tips behind the faucet…a vaginal speculum was examined, causing pieces of reddish-brown tissue to fall off the instrument…and two open boxes of needles were found on the shelves."
"Toilet facilities are in need of repairs."
"Needles were recapped."
"Although there was one R.N. for six patients, the receptionist was being utilized in assisting between patients, bringing to the instrument room dirty supplies and carrying out 'clean' supplies with the same gloved hands." (Quoted from the Tennessee State Licensing Survey, May 17, 1990, #3 860)
"The Department concludes, the license held by East Tennessee Women's Clinic to operate an ambulatory surgical treatment center as an abortion clinic should now be revoked."
(Quoted from the Office of General Counsel, Department of Health & Environment, Nashville, Tennessee 37219l, Agency Case #87-0123)
More Cases of Women Killed or Injured by Abortion
(These are documented cases from records submitted by a law firm that litigates lawsuits against abortionists on behalf of women who have been injured or families of women killed through abortion.)
DEATH: Case No. 1 – Failure to Diagnose Existing Infection Leading to Patient Death
Case No. 1 was an unmarried 18-year-old mother of a 2 ½ year old son, who had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and was taking prescription medication to control her depression. She became aware of her pregnancy in May of 1989, and planned to continue it until her treating psychiatrist advised her that her baby might be deformed by her medication. The social services department of a major teaching hospital in Pennsylvania administered a pregnancy test determining that she was 17.6 weeks pregnant on August 15, 1989.
Although she had a significant vaginal discharge noticeable at the time of her initial pelvic exam, and noted on the admission sheet, no vaginal culture was taken to ascertain the presence of any existing infections. When the abortionist inserted the laminaria for the purpose of dilating her cervix, it carried the bacteria from the vagina into the uterus.
When the "urea instillation" containing toxins to kill the baby was administered, the "necrotic" (dead) tissue became a host for the bacteria leading to massive blood poisoning. She suffered seizures, developed massive infection ("septicemia") and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ("DIC") – massive internal hemorrhaging.
At 7:40 a.m. the next morning Case No. 1 was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, was unresponsive at 8:15 a.m. and pronounced dead at 12:15 p.m. less than 24 hours after the abortion procedure began.
DEATH: Case No. 2 – Failure to Remove Amniotic Fluid Leading to Infection and Patient Death
This is the same case reported above in which Dr. Thomas Tucker, II, was ordered to pay $10,000,000 to the family of an Alabama woman who died from a botched abortion. Following is more information about the case.
A single mother of 5 children, 22 weeks pregnant, Case No. 2, went to an Alabama clinic for her late second trimester abortion on June 7, 1991. Her abortionist prescribed a two-day procedure involving an injection of lanoxin into the heart of the baby to kill it, followed by laminaria (seaweed which swells in size to open the cervix) insertion, and a Dilation and Extraction – D&E – of the parts of the dead child.
Immediately following the procedure, Case No. 2 suffered acute respiratory distress and hemorrhaging. The abortionist cancelled the first call for an ambulance by clinic staff, and abandoned her in pain leaving the clinic to catch a plane.
A second call for an ambulance was made and it arrived after Dr. Tucker left the clinic to catch his plane. The ambulance took Case No.2 to the hospital where she was diagnosed with "amniotic fluid embolism," and "Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation ("DIC") – massive internal hemorrhaging.
The attending clinic staffer with no significant medical training admitted that the ultrasound showed that some amniotic fluid remained in the uterus, but the abortionist did not remove it as called for in such a procedure. The amniotic fluid caused an infection back into Case No.2's bloodstream that developed into the uncontrolled internal bleeding. Case No.2 died 3 days after admission to the hospital.
DEATH: Case No. 3 – Torn Uterus Leading to Infection and Patient Death
Case No. 3 was 15, and the married mother of a 1-year old when a pregnancy test at a Texas clinic determined she was 16 weeks pregnant, and she requested an abortion on Friday, February 18, 1994.
Four days later she was admitted to a hospital with complaints of chills and fever, abdominal pain, nausea, and a foul smelling vaginal discharge. An examination revealed that she had a tear in the right side of her cervix that had become infected, and she was diagnosed as "Sepsis Post Abortion."
Her situation deteriorated rapidly. The sepsis caused "Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation – DIC" and Case No. 3 died in the Intensive Care Unit on March 2, 1994. The cause of death on her death certificate was listed as "Septic Abortion."
The lacerations and infection of her cervix and uterus were caused by damaged and unsterile surgical instruments. Following the death of Case No. 3, the State of Texas conducted an investigation of the clinic finding a number of health code violations.
If you or someone you know has been injured or killed by abortion, you may want to consider suing the abortionist. Help is available. Call the numbers at the top of this page for information about how to begin the process of suing for damages.