scurvy byplay: The Death of Tonya Reaves and the Myth of ...

This today from LifeSiteNews:

CHICAGO, July 26, 2012, (Operation Rescue)?New documents released in the Tonya Reaves tragedy reveal a timeline leading to her death that clearly shows Planned Parenthood delayed summoning emergency care for the dying woman for five-and-a-half hours after a severely botched abortion.

At 11:00 a.m. on Friday, Reaves received a second-trimester dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion at Planned Parenthood, located at 18 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago.

Tonya Reaves, 24, died after Planned Parenthood?s care.
After the abortion, Reaves suffered bleeding. The bleeding continued at Planned Parenthood for five-and-a-half hours before a Fire Department ambulance finally took her to Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 4:30 p.m. according to a report from Steve Miller of the CBS news affiliate WBBM.

?It is clear that Planned Parenthood botched the procedure that resulted in uncontrolled bleeding then failed to treat the hemorrhage while Reaves was at their clinic, allowing her to bleed for over five hours before finally calling for help. There can be no doubt that this delay contributed to her death,? said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation. ?The injury and the untreated hemorrhage happened at Planned Parenthood, and they are solely responsible for it.?

Once at the hospital, it appears the emergency room staff had to start from scratch to figure out the extent of Reaves? injuries.

While I?ve not been privy to these documents, the report by Operation Rescue indicates that a young woman contracted Planned Parenthood to perform a second trimester abortion and died later that day.

A few things stand out.

First, if true, a 5 1/2 hour delay for a woman hemorrhaging is beyond comprehension. When this woman was finally sent to the hospital, she was sent to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which according to their website is a Level 1 Trauma Center.

That?s significant.

From Wiki:

Level I
A Level I Trauma Center provides the highest level of surgical care to trauma patients. Being treated at a Level I Trauma Center increases a seriously injured patient?s chances of survival by an estimated 20 to 25 percent.[12] It has a full range of specialists and equipment available 24 hours a day[13] and admits a minimum required annual volume of severely injured patients. A Level I trauma center is required to have a certain number of surgeons, emergency physicians and anesthesiologists on duty 24 hours a day at the hospital, an education program, and preventive and outreach programs. Key elements include 24-hour in-house coverage by general surgeons and prompt availability of care in varying specialties?such as orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery (plastic surgeons often take calls for hand injuries), anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology, internal medicine, oral and maxillofacial surgery (trained to treat injuries of the facial skin, muscles, bones), and critical care?which are needed to adequately respond and care for various forms of trauma that a patient may suffer. Additionally, a Level I center has a program of research, is a leader in trauma education and injury prevention, and is a referral resource for communities in nearby regions.[14]

Level 1 trauma centers in big cities such as Chicago have for years been saving the lives of people pulled from horrific car wrecks and shootings by assault weapons which devastate the internal organs. Yet this hospital, the only hospital in Illinois named to the U.S. News and World Report National Honor Roll, with its Level 1 trauma center could not save this young woman from Planned Parenthood.

More from the LifeSite article:

According to Dr. James C. Anderson, M.D., in his 30 years of experience as an emergency room physician, abortion clinics never informed him about their patients? conditions.

?I have always had to evaluate the situation, come to my own conclusions, and initiate what I thought was appropriate treatment. This definitely created some time delays that were not in the patient?s best interest,? stated Dr. Anderson. ?These delays can have life-threatening implications when dealing with hemorrhage or infection.?

In Tonya?s case, that delay proved fatal.

At 5:30 p.m., doctors performed an ultrasound, which revealed the abortion was incomplete, something solely the responsibility of the Planned Parenthood abortionist.

Reaves was then given a second D&E abortion procedure, but that apparently did not solve the problems and pain Reaves was experiencing.

A second ultrasound revealed a perforation in Reaves? uterus.

Reaves was returned to the operating room at 10:12 p.m. for additional surgery, where ?an uncontrollable bleed was discovered.? At 11:20 p.m., Reaves was pronounced dead.

Read the rest here.

The story as recounted in LifeSite is nauseating. That a Level 1 trauma center in Chicago was powerless to save this young woman is chilling.

It?s understandable that women die in well-equipped hospitals during routine childbirth. Gynecologic traumas do suddenly arise, but when they do, they arise in well-equipped hospitals and not clinics that attempt to treat those traumas for 5 1/2 hours.

In the cold and brutal calculus of war, generals know well that they need to sacrifice a part of their forces in order to gain ultimate victory in the field. It?s no different in the cold and brutal calculus of the abortion war. That?s why we never hear much about the Tonya Reaves?s whose deaths, if they even get mentioned on the evening news are never pursued and quickly forgotten.

It?s just that way in war.

But Tonya Reaves was somebody?s daughter, niece, friend. She was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, and one of those young women of color whom Planned Parenthood targets with over 75% of their outreach. Perhaps we?ll never know what drove this young mother to seek the death of her well-developed baby, or whether she knew just how well developed her baby truly was.

What is known is this: By the time Planned Parenthood was finished with her not even the best trauma center in town could save her. It may well be infrequent, but that?s cold comfort to Tonya?s family.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her.

May she rest in peace. Amen.