Botched abortion triggers lawsuit

Meryl Severson hides from photographers (Operation Rescue photo)

A lawsuit has been filed against Planned Parenthood's business in Lincoln, Neb., over an abortion that left a woman with a "catastrophic perforation" of her uterus, which could have killed her had not two hospital physicians performed an emergency hysterectomy.

It is the latest in a list of lawsuits launched against the abortion provider over its treatment of women who come into its places of business.

The action was filed on behalf of a 40-year-old Nebraska woman, whose name was not included in the lawsuit, against the Lincoln Planned Parenthood location, and Dr. Meryl Severson of Omaha, who did the abortion.

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According to the Lincoln Star-Journal, Chris Funk is president of the Planned Parenthood facility, and declined comment on the action. Severson could not be reached.

The lawsuit says the woman went into the abortion business Aug. 17 for an abortion at about eight weeks of pregnancy. After waiting for several hours, the woman was given an injection, and she then heard a suction sound, felt pressure in the uterus and "immediately complained of excruciating pain," the lawsuit said.

She told Severson and the attendants to stop, but the doctor replied, "We can't stop," the lawsuit said. Three staff members then held her down as Severson completed the abortion, the complaint said.

Afterwards, the woman suffered bleeding, sharp pains and nausea, and she passed out and suffered the first of several seizures while in the abortion business' recovery area, the lawsuit said. It said she ultimately lost about 80 percent of the blood a normal human has.

Fire and rescue crews were sent to the clinic, where they picked her up and took her to a hospital, and there a doctor's report confirmed she had suffered a "catastrophic perforation" of the uterus.

The "extensive nature of the trauma," the lawsuit said, caused the doctor to seek help from a second physician to complete the emergency surgery to repair the damage, documented by photographs taken by the doctors.

In a signed summary submitted with the case, the emergency room doctor said, "Had she not received emergency care when she did, it is my professional opinion that the patient could have hemorrhaged to death," the doctor said.

Her lawyer, Jefferson Downing of Lincoln, also said he filed a complaint over the treatment with the state Health and Human Services Department.

"Our client has filed these complaints to bring to light the negligent actions of Planned Parenthood and Dr. Severson,” Downing said in a prepared statement. He said the woman's real name was not being revealed to protect her privacy.

The lawsuit, which alleges negligence and battery, is seeking nearly $37,000 in medical expenses plus unspecified damages for physical pain and mental suffering as well as permanent injury.

"This is yet another horror story from a Planned Parenthood abortion mill," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "How many women has this happened to that have not filed lawsuits? When we see stories like this, we know it is just the tip of the iceberg."

The pro-life organization said Severson splits his time between three abortion businesses in Lincoln and Council Bluffs and Sioux City, Iowa.

"People need to be aware that when they walk into a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, they may not walk out," said Newman.

Only weeks earlier, a lawsuit was filed in Warren County, Ohio, against Planned Parenthood, alleging the facility provided an abortion to a teenage girl after a father sought the procedure to cover up his sexual abuse of the teen.

Dana Cody, a lawyer who filed the action on behalf of the girl, said rather than report the abuse, as required under state law, "Planned Parenthood went ahead and was complicit with the abortion."

The abuse continued for about another 18 months before it was reported by a basketball coach, and the father eventually was convicted of sexual assault.

As WND reported earlier, Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties also is facing a damage lawsuit for the death of a woman who died of toxic shock syndrome after a clinic worker found – but did not treat – a serious infection.

The medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit was brought earlier this year by Aletheia Meloncon, whose 21-year-old daughter, Edrica Goode, died on Valentine's Day of this year. The Riverside County coroner, in fact, concluded that Goode died of "toxic shock syndrome secondary to retained laminaria cervical dilators."

The case is being handled by Jack M. Schuler, the senior trial lawyer for the Schuler and Brown law firm. He is a trial specialist and has handled cases of personal injury, wrongful death, product liability and intellectual property disputes.

He said the situation goes beyond an ordinary malpractice or negligent death case, because it has happened before.

"Any health-care provider in California is required to make a report to [the state] about any unusual occurrences. This is the third death of a Planned Parenthood patient within the last few years they haven't bothered to report. In fact, they were even cited by the California Department of Health for that failure, and agreed a few years ago to correct their manner of doing business."

"I believe that takes it out of the area of negligence and into potential concealment," he told WND.

Jim Sedlak, a spokesman for the STOPP project of the American Life League noted that there have been multiple complaints about Planned Parenthood mistreating patients.

"Planned Parenthood, although it proclaims itself as a trusted health-care organization, has been involved in a number of lawsuits involving malpractice. It has been involved in the deaths of patients, [including the death of] Holly Patterson, in California, who died after getting a medical abortion," Sedlak told WND. He said in that case, a contributing factor was that Planned Parenthood deviated from the FDA-approved regimen.

He noted that Planned Parenthood clinics in both Los Angeles and New York have been ordered closed at times because of regulators' concerns over their health-care delivery.

The Texas-based pro-life group Life Dynamics also conducted an extensive undercover project in which an adult volunteer posing as a 13-year-old called every Planned Parenthood clinic in the U.S., saying she was pregnant by a 22-year-old boyfriend. Almost without exception, the clinics advised her to obtain an abortion without her parents' knowledge and told her how to protect her boyfriend, who would be guilty in any state of statutory rape.

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