Tuesday, September 16, 2008

1994: "Feisty" patient crashes and dies after abortion

Alerte Desanges had been informed that her fetus was deformed, so she went for a safe, legal abortion at Choices Women's Medical Center in Queens on September 16, 1994. She was 36 years old and 19 weeks pregnant.

The abortion was performed by David Gluck. Staff said that after her abortion, Alerte was "feisty, telling nurses she wanted to go home. Then all of a sudden, she coded, she went into cardiac arrest."

Should Gluck and his staff have been concerned that Alerte was "feisty" and "telling nurses she wanted to go home"?
No. This is usually a sign of a healthy patient who just wants to get on with her life.
Yes. This is a sign that the patient is going into shock.

Her blood pressure fell. Staff attempted to revive her, then transported her to a hospital. Her death was tentatively attributed to amniotic fluid embolism by staff.

Desanges' 66-year-old mother, who speaks only French, was described as throwing her hands in the air and sobbing, "What are we going to do? What are we going to do? We can't go back to Haiti." Desanges supported her mother and three daughters working as a caretaker for an elderly woman, and had just bought a small house in Brooklyn.

Had Gluck been in any trouble before Alerte's death? There might be more than one correct answer.
Yes. He had a history of selling controlled substances to support his gambling addiction.
Yes. He had performed a fatal abortion on another patient in 1988.
Yes. He had overseen a slipshod and dangerous clinic where a patient died.
No. Alerte's death was his first run-in with the medical board.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i wonder if the cause of death was infection

S