Verifying the “Blood Money” Death The Story Carol Told Posted: 17 Jan 2016 12:21 PM PST by Christina Dunigan of RealChoice
Former abortion entrepreneur Carol Everett, in Blood Money, tells of how the abortionist in one of her clinics sent a woman home to bleed to death over a pitcher of margaritas.
Carol opens her book with the story of the woman she calls “Sheryl Mason.” At first believed to be 18 weeks pregnant, “Sheryl” turned out to be twenty weeks pregnant, according to the abortionist’s estimate on examining her. The clinic held the $375 she’d already paid and gave her until that Friday to come up with another $125.
It was already after 7 p.m. when “Sheryl” arrived with the extra cash, Carol said. She knew “Sheryl” would be in recovery for a long time because of her advanced state of pregnancy, so she moved her to the head of the queue to speed up the process.
After “Sheryl’s” safe and legal abortion was completed, Carol met the abortionist, Harvey Johnson, in the supply room to verify that all fetal parts were accounted for. As the fetus was verified complete, and Harvey ran the remains down the garbage disposal, they discussed their plans for the evening. Carol had a date; Harvey was going to have margaritas with his girlfriend, Carol recalled. Carol proceeded to her office to tend to administrative work. Harvey resumed the evening’s abortions. Later that evening, Harvey called Carol to the recovery room; “Sheryl” was bleeding heavily. None of the staff had ever seen that much blood. They were all scared, but did their best to calm the patient and get on top of the situation. An aide massaged the patient’s uterus to encourage it to contract and reduce the bleeding:
Harvey and I stepped outside the recovery room to talk. …. He looked at his watch. “I’m leaving to meet Fredi at Ninfa’s,” he said. “Ill call back, and I have my beeper on if you need me. Sheryl will be fine. Just be sure to keep massaging her uterus until the bleeding stops. When her vital signs are stable, dismiss her. I’ll see you in the morning.”
The staff cleaned “Sheryl” up as best they could, and brought her boyfriend back to keep her company. Carol finished up her administrative work, checked on “Sheryl,” and called her boyfriend to cancel their date.
Harvey assumed that the problem had corrected itself — whatever the problem had been. And Carol sat by “Sheryl” and the boyfriend, waiting to hear from Harvey.
“Sheryl” wanted to leave, to go home and be in her own bed. Carol was uneasy, but decided to let “Sheryl” go home at about 11:00, admonishing her to call if there was any trouble. So it was Carol, an administrator, who ended up making what should have been a medical decision made by a physician — a physician who had left the hemorrhaging patient in the care of untrained staff because the margaritas were waiting.
Carol was awakened at 6:00 the next morning by a phone call from Harvey: “Her boyfriend called me this morning at about three and told me Sheryl was cramping heavily. I told him to put her in a tub of hot water. He called back a little later to say she was unconscious. I told him to get her to [the hospital] at once, and I would meet them there. When she arrived, I started intravenous fluids and a blood transfusion… but she’s gone.” Read the Entire Story Here.
Stunned, Carol followed Harvey’s instructions to just go about the day’s business — but to pull “Sheryl’s” chart and keep it in her office.
They went about their normal routine at the clinic, but Carol’s thoughts were elsewhere. At first those thoughts were of the woman’s children, left orphaned. But then came near panic over what this death would mean for Carol Everett. Would there be bad publicity? Would the clinic end up closed? Could they recover from this blow?
That night, Carol discussed the situation with Harvey again. He told her that since the boyfriend didn’t want the woman’s family to know about the abortion, he’d spoken to them and told them that he’d been treating “Sheryl” for gynecological problems. They asked him flat out if she’d had an abortion, and he told her no, Carol said.
Harvey had done damage control, Carol said. Nobody at the hospital would say anything to anybody about the death; Harvey’s private practice and the clinic would be fine as long as they could keep the story from getting any publicity. And, Carol said, Harvey and his girlfriend carefully edited the patient chart before providing it to the medical examiner’s office.
The autopsy found that “Sheryl” had died of hemorrhaging from a cervical tear. At this news, Carol said, “I went numb:”
We could have saved Sheryl’s life! my mind screamed. We only needed to have sutured her cervix. We had everything we needed in the clinic to save Sheryl’s life, with one exception — a doctor willing to take the time to re-examine his patient to determine the cause of the bleeding. But he had a date, and the margaritas were waiting.