Abortion Deaths From Anesthesia
These women are some of those who died from mistakes or mishaps relating to anesthesia. For more about the underlying causes of deaths like these, see Anesthesia or Analgesia Related Deaths of Women From Legal Abortion: The Need for Increased Regulation
Angela Scott/Dolores Smith
In June of 1979, National Abortion Federation member Atlanta Women's Pavillion rose to new levels of incompetence when staff there managed to fatally injure two teenage abortion patients in less than an hour.
"Annie" Roe
Annie traveled from New Jersey to New York in 1971, for the safe, legal abortion that killed her.
Brenda Benton
Brenda ended up in a hospital with liver failure, and died April 20, 1987. The death certificate attributed her death to liver damage and halothane anesthesia poisoning.
Catherine Pierce
Catherine languished in a coma for seven months before dying of complications from an abortion done at a National Abortion Federation member facility.
Darlene Wood
Darlene's fatal abortion was performed in Temple University Hospital.
Dawn Mack
Dawn was one of two patients -- both, coincidentally, named Dawn -- who died after anesthesia complications at Eastern Women's Center.
Dawn Ravenell
Thirteen-year-old Dawn's parents didn't know anything was amiss, until they got a phone call to come to the hospital right away, that Dawn was "fighting for her life."
Deanna Bell
Deanna was only 13 years old when she was given massive doses of Brevitol for an abortion by Steve Lichtenberg.
Deborah Ann Lozinski
Seventeen-year-old Deborah had languished for two months in a coma, hospitalized after an abortion at Medical Care Center in Woodbridge, New Jersey.
Debra Gray
Debra Gray
Thirty-four-year-old Debra M. Gray went to Hillview Women's Medical Center for an abortion on July 12, 1989. A nurse injected her with a fast-acting barbituate to prepare her for the abortion. Debra went into cardiac arrest.
Diane Watson
None of the four physicians on the premises performed CPR on Diane after she went into cardiac arrest.
Donna Heim
Donnas sister, who was in the waiting room, became alarmed at the intense staff activity, and asked a staffer about her sister. She was told Donna was fine. Then she saw an ambulance pull up to the building and stepped outside, where she observed Donna being transferred into the emergency vehicle.
Gail Mazo
Gail vomited and choked during her abortion at Mt. Sinai in New York.
Georgianna "Jeannie" English
Former criminal abortionist Milan Vuitch had been operating his clinic without a license for two years when 32-year-old Jeannie English came to him for an abortion on January 12, 1980. Vuitch administered general anesthsia for Jeannie, and she never woke up.
Gwendolyn Cliett
Gwendolyn was about to undergo an elective abortion at Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia when she reacted to anesthesia and died.
Jacqueline Reynolds
Jacqueline underwent an abortion at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta on August 27, 1986. Due to inadequate oxygenation during general anesthesia, Jacqueline lapsed into a coma. She died on September 5.
Janet Lally Blaum
Janet's ex-husband sued Knight on behalf of the couple's children, alleging that Knight had administered a fatal dose of anesthesia while preparing Janet for the abortion.
K. B.
After K.B.'s death, the health department investigated and found a mystery: K.B.'s chart listed her post-operative condition as "pink, responsive, alert," even though she had gone into full cardio-respiratory arrest by the time indicated on the assessment.
Laniece Dorsey
The Orange County Sheriffs Department medical examiner blamed the death on cardiorespiratory arrest due to the anesthesia, although he also found a thick adherent layer of fibrinous material containing moderate numbers of inflammatory infiltrates in Lanieces uterus.
Mary Davies
Mary Davies is the only woman known to have died from abortion related complications under the care of famed illegal abortionist Dr. Robert Spencer.
Mary Ann Page
Mary Ann was 37 years old when she underwent her fatal abortion and tubal ligation.
Mitsue Mohar
Mitsue went into cardiac arrest during her abortion, convulsed, and went into a coma from which she never recovered.
Patricia King
Twenty-four-year-old Patricia King went to Dean H. Diment in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for an abortion on May 4, 1987. Patricia went into cardiac arrest after being injected with anesthetic.
Robin Wells
Robin went into cardiac arrest in the recovery room, and was transferred by ambulance to a hospital. She remained in a coma until her death on August 2, 1981.
"Roxanne" Roe
Roxanne traveled from Michigan to New York for the safe-and-legal abortion that took her life.
Stacy Ruckman
An autopsy found toxic concentrations of Lidocaine in Stacy's blood. Her parents sued, and a jury awarded them $25.3 million for the wrongful death of their daughter.
Suzanne Logan
Suzanne awoke, paralyzed, after four months in a coma following her abortion at Maryland's notorious Hillview abortion mill. She died after three years in a nursing home.
Tanya Williamson
Tanya was not adequately monitored in the recovery room of Moshe Hachamovitch's abortion facility.
Venus Ortiz
Venus lingered nearly six years in a vegetative state after her safe and legal abortion at New York's Eastern Women's Center.
