On Friday, March 3, observers from the 40 Days for Life prayer movement noticed an 18-year-old woman being moved onto an ambulance via a stretcher at Baltimore’s Hillcrest Clinic, located in the suburb of Catonsville. Operation Rescue, in a bid to access the 911 call data from Baltimore County, encountered significant obstructions. Despite these challenges, the county eventually shared the computer-assisted 911 call transcript, as well as an audio file. The latter was heavily distorted, allowing for only sporadic understanding.
The transcript indicated that the young woman had encountered serious, potentially fatal complications. While the audio recording was difficult to comprehend, the caller mentioned the young woman experiencing multiple seizures after awakening from an abortion procedure. The emergency caller, a clinic employee, was uncertain about the woman’s consciousness at the time.
The 911 call transcript noted that the young woman was dealing with ‘agonal/ineffective breathing’ and ‘convulsions/seizures,’ with no reported history of epilepsy, brain tumors, or stroke. Further comments regarding her medical background and situation were censored.
The Hillcrest Clinic has a questionable past, having failed licensure assessments several times and even functioning for a period without an appropriate license. An alarming number of these failures included deficiencies tied to the administration of anesthesia, which could potentially be the cause of this crisis.
In previous evaluations, Hillcrest was flagged for concerns around conscious sedation practices and the absence of requisite certifications for nurses administering anesthesia. The assessments also highlighted a complete lack of agreements relating to anesthesiology.
