Sacramento, CA — The California state Department of Health Services has cited a Los Angeles Planned Parenthood clinic for numerous deficiencies linked to the death of a woman following a legal abortion performed by a Sacramento abortion practitioner. The report, released June 18, found that the mother, 25-year-old Diana Lopez, was not a good candidate for an abortion, and that the abortion practitioner and staff failed to follow established protocols before and after the abortion.
The case also is the subject of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Lopez family against Mark Maltzer, medical director of Pregnancy Consultation Center in Sacramento and against Los Angeles Planned Parenthood, where the abortion was performed.
The state report and the lawsuit raise allegations of a lack of medical oversight and sloppy clinical procedures.
Lopez died Feb. 28, 2002, from “a hemorrhage due to traumatic anterior cervical perforation due to dilation and evacuation for elective termination of pregnancy at 18 weeks,” according to a deputy medical examiner at the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. In other words, she bled to death after her cervix was punctured during her abortion.
Medical records indicate that because of extensive bleeding following the abortion, Lopez was taken by ambulance from the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in East Los Angeles to nearby Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Women's and Children's Hospital. There, surgeons performed an emergency hysterectomy, but Lopez died soon thereafter.
“It was wrong. It was wrong,” said Judy Lopez, Diana's older sister. “She was healthy. She was fine.”
Maltzer and Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles referred questions about the case to their Los Angeles attorney, Gary Fields. Fields refused to comment. In a response filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Fields denied the allegations.
The state's study, conducted in May in response to a complaint filed by a California pro-life group, found numerous deficiencies in the abortion businesses' operations, including:
In an earlier investigation conducted just after Lopez's death, the state said the abortion facility failed to obtain a valid informed consent from the patient prior to the abortion. Informed consent involves a thorough discussion of abortion and its risks. The state determined that a “reproductive health specialist, instead of the physician performing the procedure, had obtained the signed consent,” which does not meet state requirements.• Failure to contact the state within 24 hours after Lopez was taken to a hospital, as required by the state. The state was not notified until six days after Lopez died.
• Failure to implement a policy that would have advised against an abortion for Lopez because her hemoglobin (a substance in the blood) was too low on a test.
• Inappropriate use of misoprostol, a drug used to promote contractions. Surgical abortion policy dictates that the drug may be given 90 minutes before an abortion. Records show Lopez was given the drug a day earlier.
• Failure by the abortion facility's board of directors to “exercise oversight responsibility for ensuring the operation of the clinic.” Minutes from board meetings, for example, did not document “any adverse outcome related to patient care within the facility.”
• Failure to keep a detailed health record on Lopez including her diagnoses, type of anesthesia used during the procedure, surgical findings and the procedure performed.
A state Health Services Department spokeswoman said all of the deficiencies cited have been addressed by the Planned Parenthood abortion facility.
The Medical Board of California confirmed that it, too, has launched an investigation into the case, a board spokeswoman said.
Normally the type of abortion procedure Lopez had takes 30 minutes. Jack Schuler, the Lopez family's Van Nuys attorney, said the medical record indicated the D&E abortion she had lasted only six minutes, an obvious sign of sloppiness and lack of attention to detail.
Lopez sought an abortion, Judy Lopez said, because she already had two children and relied on state aid to support them. Since before her death, Diana Lopez's husband, David Enriquez, has been in jail on a probation violation. He could not be reached for comment.
Judy Lopez said her sister's children, 5-year-old Frank and 3-year-old Fabian, are now living with their grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins in their two-bedroom Huntington Park home.
Why Maltzer, whose practice is in Sacramento, was working in the Los Angeles abortion facility is not clear.
Schuler suggested the motive was financial.
“They get the clinics to do all the prep work, then they line the patients up in a cattle call,” he said. “They never see the patient until just before surgery, and then spend five or six minutes with the patient and are on to the next one.”
Maltzer told the Sacramento Bee newspaper last year that he teaches abortion procedures at the University of California, Davis, and UCSF.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
