No Action from PA When Ex-Employee Blew Whistle on Gosnell

by Mary Chastain 14 Apr 2013 61post a comment View Discussion

In December 2001, an ex-employee handed all the evidence the Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS) needed to shut down Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic. Officials did not act on it, even when more evidence appeared to back claims of serious health concerns and possible criminal violations.

Marcella Stanley Cheung went to the State Board of Medicine (the Board) and gave them a specific written complaint and participated in an interview in March 2002. Her allegations from the grand jury testimony are atrocious:

She informed the department investigator that Gosnell was using unlicensed workers (including herself) to give IV anesthesia to patients when he was not at the clinic; that his facility was filthy; that two sick, flea-infested cats roamed freely in the procedure rooms, vomiting throughout; that Gosnell ate in the procedure rooms; that the autoclave used to sterilize instruments was broken; that he reused single-use curettes; that there were no licensed nurses at the facility when IV anesthesia was administered; that Gosnell allowed one patient to use her cousin’s insurance card to pay for an abortion; that Gosnell performed abortions on “underage children” against their will if their mothers asked him to; and that he performed other abortions without consent forms.

Choung told the Department of State investigator that she thought a second trimester patient had died at a hospital after Gosnell performed an abortion on her. And she said that she had seen patient files in which he prescribed 90 Percocet tablets (a narcotic combining oxycodone and acetaminophen) for a patient one week and then, again, 90 more tablets the next week. She gave very detailed information about the files, what she saw, and when. She provided the name of at least one patient, and suggested that the investigator look at her file. Choung wrote that any of the other clinic workers – except one named Jonathan – would be willing to confirm her information….To Read More…..