The Pro-Life Action League, acting through
its legal counsel, the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, filed a formal
administrative complaint with the Illinois Department of Professional
Regulation (IDPR), urging in the public interest that the IDPR
undertake an immediate investigation as to whether substandard medical
care led to the death last summer of Tonya Reaves (photo right), shortly after she had
a late term abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility in Chicago.
The complaint raises a series of questions -- arising from news reports, web postings, 911 records, the autopsy report of the Cook County Coroner, and other sources -- as to whether Ms. Reaves, a 24-year-old single mother, who died on July 20, 2012, after she underwent a surgical abortion at Planned Parenthood's "Loop Health Center" facility, received unprofessional care from Illinois licensed physicians.
The League and the Thomas More Society have detailed a series of serious concerns about apparent inadequate and substandard care given to Ms. Reaves -- concerns that are immediately prompted by critical facts of the case that have become public up to this date. First, Planned Parenthood's website for the 18 S. Michigan facility, where Ms. Reaves had her abortion, recited (in a passage that was later deleted) that only limited services -- birth control, emergency contraception, and medication abortion (i.e., the abortion pill) -- were available at that facility. Yet Ms. Reaves, then 16 weeks pregnant according to her autopsy report, underwent an invasive, surgical dilatation & evacuation (D&E) abortion. Thus these facts suggest that this facility was inadequately equipped and/or staffed to handle either the D&E procedure or complications arising as a result -- complications that later led to the patient's demise. Any physician taking responsibility for performing surgery in such a sub-par setting, who inflicts the ultimate "harm" (death) on his or her patient, is not even remotely "properly qualified or competent" to render such potentially fatal surgical services, which is "dishonorable, unethical or unprofessional conduct" or "questioned activities" that flout regulatory norms.
While Ms. Reaves' abortion was performed at about 11:00
a.m. on July 20th, her autopsy shows that she was not transferred to
Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which was fully equipped to handle
post-surgical emergencies, until 5½ hours later. Capable, experienced
medical staff should have noted that the patient was not recovering
properly and needed emergency medical care. Even after Ms. Reaves'
ultimately fatal complications must have been plainly apparent, staff
failed to call 911. The autopsy also indicates that she received large
quantities of saline solution, but no effective medical help. No city
ambulance was summoned, so Ms. Reaves may well have been taken to the
hospital in a non-emergency vehicle, unequipped for transport of
life-threatening cases. All suggesting that Ms. Reaves was victimized by woefully inadequate emergency care,
far from what proper medical standards required.
The autopsy showed that when the patient
finally arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH), she was given
an ultrasound and re-suctioned. But the autopsy does not indicate that
NMH doctors considered whether she had suffered a uterine perforation --
what the Planned Parenthood physician must have suspected, given
profuse bleeding and statistical likelihood of such an event occurring
during an abortion procedure. Indeed, it was only after the hospital
doctors conducted another abortion (perhaps her third of that fateful
day) that staff noted the build-up of fluid in the abdominal cavity. But
by 10:15 p.m., it was already too late to save Ms. Reaves' life. All
these facts suggest a gross failure of the Planned Parenthood physician
to communicate to hospital staff all of the relevant and urgent facts
about this gravely endangered patient immediately upon her transfer to
the hospital, amounting to a flagrant case of utterly unprofessional
"patient abandonment."
While normally, such violations of
professional medical standards would be reported to the Illinois
Department of Public Health, all Illinois Planned Parenthood clinics are
unlicensed. As a result, any investigation relating to sub-standard
medical care on their part is entrusted to IDPR.
"We request, respectfully but urgently, that the Illinois Department
of Professional Regulation investigate and scrutinize all relevant facts
surrounding the death of Tonya Reaves," said Tom Brejcha, President and
Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Society. He added: "It is IDPR's
solemn duty to protect patients from dangerous medical treatments, and
Illinois citizens sorely need dependable assurance that Tonya Reaves'
tragedy will never be allowed to recur."
To read the complaint letter in its entirety:
To read an excerpt of the Tony Reaves autopsy:
www.scribd.com/doc/124383425/Tonya-Reaves-Autopsy
To read the Illinois Health Medical Practice Act:
www.scribd.com/doc/124382384/Health-Medical-Practice-Act-of-1987
