September 19, 2003
SAFE AND LEGAL: (via Brian Boys)
Pregnant teen's death under investigation; East Bay woman had taken RU-486, according to father (Julian Guthrie, 9/19/2003, SF Chronicle)
"On Sunday, she was crying and crying, and she told me she was having cramps, that she had a bad period," said Patterson, a home builder who said he had learned of the pregnancy only hours before his daughter died.Between Sunday and Wednesday, Holly Patterson was bleeding severely, in acute pain and unable to walk, her father said. Her boyfriend rushed her late Sunday to Valley Care Medical Center in Pleasanton, Patterson said. She was given painkillers and released, Patterson said.
"She went back into the hospital in the middle of the night Wednesday, and she died at 2 p.m.," Patterson said. "The doctor told me that she hadn't aborted all of the fetus, and she had fragments left in her, and she had a massive systemic infection and went into septic shock."
A pit bull attorney should be able to help these folks sue Planned Parenthood out of existence but, odds are, it will be the hospital that takes the rap for this horrible tragedy. Posted by John Resnick at September 19, 2003 02:43 PM
Say that happens, and RU 486 becomes unavailable.
Subsequently, a woman who wanted RU 486 dies as a result of an ectopic pregnancy.
Who is she going to sue?
This reminds me of another hospital story. My wife went to the hospital complaining of severe motion sickness, fever, and headache.
They diagnosed constipation.
She actually had encephilitis.
Which sounds a lot like the kind of screw-up this hospital made.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at September 20, 2003 05:46 AMMr. Guinn: Are you saying there is no medical help at all, other than RU486, for an ectopic pregnancy? That's news to me.
Posted by: Buttercup at September 20, 2003 11:48 AMButtercup:
No. I'm saying if this hospital couldn't diagnose her problem, then they would be clueless when it comes to an ectopic pregnancy, as well.
Which, presumably, RU 486 would have prevented, thereby obviating the hospital's proclivity to fail grasping the readily apparent.
The rap for this tragic story lies, as it nearly did with my wife, with the hospital.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at September 20, 2003 06:31 PMPit bull attorney suing Planned Parenthood? C'mon. "You'll never work in this town again" is often an effective threat, even for lawyers.
Besides, in the eyes of the law, abortionists are today what firemen were a century ago. They're pretty much immune from liability for anything they do in the line of duty, lest we deter people from entering or remaining in that line of work, which heaven forfend.
Posted by: Random Lawyer at September 21, 2003 01:48 AM