ARTICLES
July/August 2003 ARTICLES
Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Dead That Afternoon
Planned Parenthood's Bloody Record
By Sandra Schmerz
On the morning of February 28, 2002, a 25-year-old mother, Diana Lopez, went to Planned Parenthood Bixby Center at 1057 Kingston in downtown Los Angeles for a Medi-Cal abortion at 19-20 weeks of pregnancy. She was pronounced dead that afternoon.
According to the wrongful death malpractice case filed against Planned Parenthood by Diana's husband, David, on April 1, 2003, the surgeon of record was Mark Maltzer of Sacramento -- a "fly-in" abortionist who owns his own abortion business in Sacramento. Maltzer so severely slashed Lopez's cervix in removing sharp bones and body parts of her unborn infant that she bled to death, and, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner's report No. 2002-01721, she died on account of a traumatic perforation of the cervix -- "due to, or as a consequence of, dilatation and evacuation of elective termination of pregnancy."
After the trauma at Planned Parenthood, Lopez was ambulanced to County Women's Hospital where staff designated her a "red blanket" emergency. A complete hysterectomy was performed, and five units of whole blood (a unit is about a pint) were transfused in an attempt to save Lopez's life.
According to the wrongful death suit, Dr. Maltzer failed to obtain valid, informed consent from Lopez, failed to examine her prior to surgery; failed to heed the written warning of a lower hemoglobin test result; failed to heed the written warning of a small cervical opening; and failed to prepare the cervix adequately for the late-term abortion -- performed in six minutes. "Mark Maltzer, M.D. worked so quickly, recklessly, and negligently, pulling out sharp body parts of Diana Lopez's 19-20 week unborn infant, that severe irreparable damage was done to the cervix, causing massive, immediate hemorrhage from a traumatic cervical perforation," states the lawsuit.
The Los Angeles County department of health facility licensing conducted an investigation after Lopez's death, which was completed on March 18, 2002, but failed to mention in its public report that anyone did die. The Los Angeles County department of health referred to Lopez's death as an "unusual occurrence."
An inspection of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles in July, 2001, revealed that there was another "unusual occurrence" in which a woman was ambulanced to a hospital and that Planned Parenthood failed to adhere to the requirement to report this emergency to the Los Angeles County department of health. Each investigative report fails to identify the offending staff and fails to disclose the severity of the "unusual occurrence" at Planned Parenthood.
A review of the Los Angeles County superior court civil index from 1983 to the present shows about 50 suits filed against Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. On April 19, 2002 Kimberly Thomas filed a suit against Planned Parenthood L.A., alleging that she underwent an abortion there and was "near death" on arrival by ambulance at L.A. County hospital, where she underwent a complete hysterectomy and resection of the sigmoid colon. Thomas accused the abortionist, Joseph Marmet, of lacerating her cervix, perforating her uterus, and perforating her sigmoid colon during a "six-minute" abortion.
The California Medical Board took no action against Marmet. The Los Angeles County department of health failed to suspend Planned Parenthood's facility license.
Despite the fact that the state medical board was promptly notified of Lopez's death, they failed to suspend the license of Dr. Mark Maltzer, and no public action has been taken. Lopez leaves behind two sons, Frankie (4) and Fabian (2), and her husband, David.