By Cheryl Sullenger
Bakersfield, CA – A recording of a March 31, 2015, 911 call seeking help for an abortion-related medical emergency that was recently obtained by Operation Rescue was anything but routine.
Instead of a clinic worker or abortionist on the line, this time it was a distraught husband who sought ambulance assistance to transport his 26-year old wife from a Bakersfield, California, abortion facility to the emergency room when she began to suffer respiratory distress after an abortion.
But it was the reaction of the abortion clinic personnel at FPA Women’s Health, formerly known as Family Planning Associates, that was completely inexcusable.
The husband, identified in the recording as “Erik,” told a dispatcher that he believed his wife was suffering an allergic reaction to anesthesia.
“I don’t know what happened in there, but I think the anesthesia — They put so much anesthesia in her and she’s apparently — I’m thinking that she’s allergic to it because this is the second time it’s happened,” he told the dispatcher.
The troubling conversation continued:
911: Okay, you’re telling me you’re not sure what happened, so are you able to go in to her and tell me what happened and ask her?
Caller: You know what? No, I’m not going to go in there because you have to literally check in. They won’t let you in unless — I just walked out of there, okay?
911: Let them know you’re on the phone with 911 and that we need to get next to the patient. If she’s having an emergency, it shouldn’t be an issue.
But it was an issue – a big one.
When he attempted to enter the clinic where his wife was experiencing a medical emergency, he found the door locked. One can clearly hear him knocking on the door, but the clinic workers refused to let him back in even though he explained he was on the line with 911 and that the dispatcher had asked to speak with them.
Caller: Yeah, they don’t want to let me in.
911: You’re not able to get in there?
Caller: Yeah, you guys will deal with it when you get here.
“This man was treated like dirt by the FPA Staff,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “Why didn’t the clinic staff call 911? Why did he have to do it? What would have happened to his wife if he hadn’t been there?”
The dispatcher continued to question the man concerning his wife’s condition.
911: Is she completely alert.
Caller: No, she’s not!
911: Was she responding appropriately when you were talking to her?
Caller: She’s struggling to breathe.
911: I understand, but when you talk to her, would she respond appropriately?
Caller: No.
***
911: Does she have difficulty speaking between breaths?Caller: Yeah, she’s having difficulty speaking.
911: Is she changing color?
Caller: Yeah, she’s pale!
He then goes on to describe how she was “clamping, like her feet and her hands.”
“She’s actually folding her feet, like clamping her wrists, like tightening as a — like, her
fingers are clamping up,” he explained.
Eventually, the woman was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital, but her condition today is not known.
Given the husband’s account that on a previous occasion, his wife had experienced respiratory distress and required emergency transport, an outpatient surgical abortion was ill-advised.
“There are so many questions that need answering,” said Newman. “Did the abortionist take a medical history? If so, did she ignore the possibility that the patient was allergic to the anesthesia?”
The abortionist was Karen Mann, who has worked in Bakersfield for only about three months. During that time, she has been responsible for a total of three medical emergencies, including this one. Other incidents took place on February 3, in which an abortion patient was said to have suffered a heart attack, and on April 14 when a woman described by witnesses as “lifeless” was rushed to an emergency room.
All three incidents were photographed by long-time pro-life activists Tim and Terry Palmquist, of Life Savers Ministries, who regularly offer practical help to women entering FPA Women’s Health in Bakersfield.
“It is apparent that Mann did not want to call 911 for help with treatment that she was unprepared to provide. It is unacceptable to gamble with someone’s life in order to conceal a problem. This shows such a huge disregard for the lives of her patients that she isn’t fit to practice medicine,” said Newman. “The husband’s treatment by abortion clinic staff was beyond the pale. Anyone with a loved one can understand why he was so upset. These are the outrageous and selfish acts of folks who just don’t care about people.”
Operation Rescue continues to seek the 911 recording from the April 14 incident and plans to file a complaint against Mann with the California Medical Board once all the evidence is in.
“This 911 call and others we have obtained are glimpses of the truth behind the deceptive ‘women’s reproductive rights’ rhetoric. On one hand, abortionists pretend to care about women, but their actions speak volumes about their callous, uncaring attitudes toward life,” said Newman.
Go get ’em, Troy, Cheryl and all the faithful pro-lifers there! I pray she is alright.
This happened before? A previous abortion? Why is she doing this again? Why is he allowing it?
Allowing it? Did you hear his “I’m the Tough Guy.” tone he took with the operator? This whole thing was probably his idea! I wouldn’t be surprised if he was coercing his wife.
Sad. You are probably right.
I’m speaking from experience, unfortunately.
I am thinking the same thing!
The husband’s distress and frustration are apparent during the 911 call. Being under stress makes it hard to remain calm and remember details to answer the questions.
Yeah, it’s very stressful when you knock up your wife, then pressure her into aborting your child you didn’t want to be bothered with when you had sex, then find out that your source for said sex might be expiring.
Why yes, how dare him object to being walked all over by a rude 911 operator mindlessly reading from a script. She is incapable of grasping the situation he is describing but still wants to bludgeon him into submitting to following her script. And yes, it does take a “tough guy” to rail against feminism that holds abortion clinics as so sacred that they are willing to sacrifice mothers with their children and walk all over men like the clinic personnel AND the 911 operator tried to do.
“Why yes, how dare him object to being walked all over by a rude 911 operator mindlessly reading from a script. She is incapable of grasping the situation he is describing but still wants to bludgeon him into submitting to following her script.”
That’s her attempt to do her frigging job, because her job entails her to have certain information, and since *he* called, *he* needs to get it.
If he’s such a “tough guy”, why was his wife there in the first place, if he didn’t *want* her there?
“feminism” my rear.
So, your concern wasn’t with the sexist “allowing it” statement but rather you doubled down on it and said it was probably his idea. Thanks for letting me know so obviously that this is just about misogyny. BTW, more abusive men attempt reproductive sabotage rather than coercing abortions. Oops.
“So, your concern wasn’t with the sexist “allowing it” statement but rather you doubled down on it and said it was probably his idea.”
I’m speaking from personal experience. When *I* was pregnant, my abusive husband told me I had better have our daughter killed in an abortion or he was going to kill himself.
Granted, I told him to not expect me at his funeral, but he still tried.
But sure, “we’re* the misogynists. HA.
“BTW, more abusive men attempt reproductive sabotage rather than coercing abortions. Oops.”
Source, please.
Whoa, excellent post. Where you harmed?
What’s wrong with that 911 operator? It didn’t sound as if she was making any effort to understand the situation – repeatedly asking if he could go to where his wife was, long after he’d made it clear that the abortion facility staff weren’t going to allow that, and then continually asking him to describe her current symptoms when she should have known that he wasn’t with her.
As for the facility staff’s actions, that’s an old story. They’ll do just about anything to prevent anyone finding out there’s a problem, no matter how bad shape the patient is in.
The husband should’ve been there with her, and it was good that the operator was trying to get him there to assist her in her assessment. The ambulance was already on the way, the best thing for the patient would have been an accurate assessment to tell dispatcher/emts.
I went there for an abortion and ended up in the hospital a couple days later with an infection in my uterus. Thanks for using dirty utensils yall!
What could’ve been done to prevent the death of your child?
How sad. He states she went in for an abortion as if she had gone in to try on some new clothes. I wish her the best but the moral attitude expressed in the call is just void and empty.
In an emergency like that, clamping of the hands and feet (muscle contractions) is a bad sign. It is more than she is struggling to breathe. Her brain was not getting enough oxygen. How long did Family Planning Associates let her brain be deprived of oxygen? What are the staff doing to help? It is pretty bad when the husband has to go over their heads.
It’s most likely from hyperventilating. It causes you to blow off too much carbon dioxide resulting in cramping in your extremities, the feeling of being air hungry and having numbness and tingling. It sounds like a panic attack from an emotional stress… Like knowing that aborting your child is killing your child.
You are right about hyperventilating leading to muscle tetany. However, hypocapnia (less carbon dioxide in the blood) causes the blood vessels in the brain to constrict (cerebral vaso-constriction) which leads to reduced oxygen supply to the brain (cerebral hypoxia). Without an adequate oxygen supply to the brain, brain damage occurs.
Men should protect their families, I hope this pathetic excuse for a man has learned a valuable lesson? There are consequences for murder!
Of course, never any concern for the THOUSANDS of more complications that arise from incomplete miscarriages because of your monstrous ideologies. Savita anyone? And there ARE more. Oops.
Yikes. An oldie, but a tired-y. She didn’t die from a lack of abortion. She died due to medical negligence and the fact that medical personnel were not checking her chart/test results/stats regularly, and therefore failed to administer the required medications in a timely fashion:
http://blog.secularprolife.org/2012/11/what-does-savita-halappanavars-death.html
Still trying to wrap my head around married couples having multiple abortions…could be Karma
Who cares whether she was coerced or not? That’s all speculation. I just hope she is ok and someone makes sure the abortionist loses her license.