By Dave Andrusko
As we discussed yesterday, the White House has invited a number of pro-life groups and individuals to attend a showing of the “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” today.
To be sure, there was largely a media blackout of the 2013 Gosnell trial which culminated in Gosnell’s conviction on three counts of first degree murder in the deaths of three babies he aborted alive and then severed their spinal cords.
But what received virtually no attention was the November 19, 2009 death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Monger. Mongar, an immigrant from Nepal, was to undergo a “dilation and evacuation” abortion at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society abortion clinic, aka the “House of Horrors.”
She died after being administered what was described as a “lethal cocktail” of painkillers and sedatives by unqualified personnel. The jury convicted Gosnell of involuntary manslaughter in her death.
Below we’re posting a section from the highly detail and very influential Grand Jury report that paved the way for Gosnell’s trial. It comes from Section V which is titled, “The Death of Karnamaya Mongar” and deals with Mrs. Mongar’s death and why (among a hundred other reasons) abortion clinics must meet safety standards.
The excerpt details what obstacles the emergency personnel faced when they arrived at Gosnell’s abortion clinic.~
Emergency personnel, who were called far too late, found Mrs. Mongar without a pulse when they arrived
It was after 11 p.m. – long after O’Neill, at least, had decided Mrs. Mongar was dead – that Lynda Williams finally asked Ashley Baldwin to call 911. Emergency personnel responded to the “code blue,” indicating cardiac arrest, within two minutes of receiving the call, arriving at the clinic at 11:13. They found Mrs. Mongar in the procedure room, lifeless. She had no pulse and was not breathing. Paramedics reported that Gosnell was just standing there, not doing anything.
The paramedics immediately intubated Mrs. Mongar to give her oxygen, and started an intravenous line to administer emergency medications to stimulate her heart. They hooked up the patient to a heart monitor, confirmed that her heart was not beating,
and began CPR. They were surprised that, in a medical clinic, basic steps had not already been taken before their arrival. After twice administering medication – epinephrine and atropine – to stimulate Mrs. Mongar’s heart, the paramedics also used a defibrillator that
they had brought to the scene, and were able to restore weak heart activity.
Mrs. Mongar’s slim chances of survival were seriously hampered because it was exceedingly difficult for responders to get her to the waiting ambulance. The emergency exit was locked. Gosnell sent Ashley to the front desk to look for the key, but she could
not find it. Ashley told us that a firefighter needed to cut the lock, but “It took him awhile … because the locks is old.” She testified that it took “twenty minutes, probably trying to get the locks unlocked.”
Mrs. Gurung [Mrs. Mongar’s daughter], and her mother-in-law ran outside, crying. Mr. Ghalley [a family friend] and Mrs. Gurung, frightened, watched the firefighters struggling to get the door open, while Karnamaya Mongar lay motionless. After cutting the locks, responders had to waste precious more minutes trying to maneuver through the narrow cramped hallways that could not accommodate a stretcher
Once the EMTs finally succeeded in getting Mrs. Mongar into the ambulance, they continued to administer medication and use the defibrillator. Sherry West [a Gosnell employee] went to the hospital with Mr. Ghalley and the family, in Ghalley’s car. According to the family, West gave directions, but there was no real conversation. West told them that Mrs. Mongar was unconscious, but not to worry.
When the ambulance arrived at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania shortly after midnight, Mrs. Mongar was in extremely critical condition. She had no heartbeat, no blood pressure, and was not breathing. After 45 minutes to an hour of aggressive resuscitation efforts, doctors were able to restore a weak heartbeat.
She never regained consciousness and had no neurological function.
One doctor explained to us that, while many of the body’s organs can be resuscitated 15 or 30 minutes after the heart stops pumping, the brain will shut down after about 10 minutes (the amount of time that Gosnell wasted retrieving the crash cart that he did not
use and talking with O’Neill before calling 911). The doctor testified that, even though medical personnel were able to restore a weak heartbeat at the hospital, Mrs. Mongar was, by most people’s definition, “dead” at the abortion clinic.
Mrs. Mongar remained on life support until family members could make the trip from Virginia to say good-bye. As a result of the cardiac arrest, she had stopped breathing and suffered acute anoxic encephalopathy – brain damage due to a lack of
oxygen. She was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. on November 20, 2009. The medical examiner concluded that the acute anoxic encephalopathy resulted from the cardiac arrest, which itself had been caused “because somebody gave her a Demerol overdose.”
While the family was waiting at the hospital, Gosnell came to the hospital to pick up West. Mr. Ghalley, waiting outside, saw him and asked Gosnell to explain what had happened. Gosnell repeatedly told Ghalley that he hadn’t done anything wrong, that he
hadn’t made a mistake.
Gosnell, according to Ghalley, said the victim’s heart stopped beating, but “don’t blame me.”