Ambulance Transports Patient from Virginia Abortion Clinic with History of Filth, Unsafe Conditions

By Cheryl Sullenger

Falls Church, VA — A woman was transported by ambulance from the Falls Church Healthcare abortion clinic in Falls Church, Virginia, on June 27, 2013. Local activists caught the incident on video and obtained the 911 Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) transcript, which noted that a 24-year old woman was suffering from hyperventilation following anesthesia.

The CAD transcript documented that emergency responders were dispatched under the “ALS” code, meaning the patient required “advanced life support,” which is indicative of a more serious condition that a “BLS” or “basic life support” designation. That, coupled with the fact that the patient required hospitalization, means it is possible that hyperventilation was only one of the symptoms, and that the patient’s condition was more serious.

There is other gruesome evidence that Falls Church Healthcare poses a health and safety hazard.

Falls Church Healthcare underwent a licensing inspection in August of last year after Virginia enacted new safety regulations for abortion clinics. The inspection report, obtained by Operation Rescue, listed 63 pages of deficiencies that required correction, including:

• Bloody, reused vacutainer holders
• Dried blood on leg support of procedure table
• Bloody door and wall outside procedure room
• Cloth leg covers reused for multiple patients
• Dirty recovery recliners
• Improperly washed linens that could spread infection
• Contamination of pathology containers with blood from physician’s gloves
• Undated, open vials of medication
• No emergency “incident tray” in one procedure room
• Expired supplies, including an emergency IV line that expired in 2003
• Failure to maintain equipment
• No process for STD screening and reporting
• No policy for reporting patient deaths

On June 10, 2013, just 17 days before hospitalizing one of their patients, Falls Church Healthcare filed a Petition for Administrative Appeal in Arlington County Circuit Court against the Virginia Board of Health challenging the regulations and seeking an injunction to bar their enforcement.

“The hospitalization of a Falls Church Healthcare patient and the massive amount of appalling deficiencies found at that facility paint a picture of yet another abortion ‘House of Horrors,’” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue. “It is typical for abortion clinics that cannot or will not meet safety standards to challenge the laws so they can continue operating below the required standard of care. This is all about the dangerous practice of cutting corners to maintain profits for the abortion clinic even at the expense of patient safety.”

The problems at Falls Church Healthcare are more evidence that a safety crisis exists at abortion clinics across America where shoddy, hazardous practices akin to those found in Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia “House of Horrors” are the norm, not the exception.

View Falls Church Healthcare’s profile page at AbortionDocs.org