By Rita McInerney

An out of court settlement which could exceed $2 million has been reached in the death Oct. 10, 1989, of a young woman who underwent an abortion last March at Atlanta Surgi-Center, 1133 Spring St., NW, Atlanta.

The patient, Catherine Pierce, 27 of Chattanooga, Tenn., was transferred to Crawford Long Hospital after the procedure was performed at the abortion clinic. She was in a coma, was later transferred to a nursing home and never regained consciousness.

According to John McClarty, Chattanooga attorney for Ms. Pierce’s 11-year-old daughter, and for her parents, Josephine and Charlie Pierce, the settlement provides an immediate lump sum payment of $400,000 for the child and monthly payments of $2,000 for the child’s lifetime. Mrs. Pierce is guardian for her granddaughter with assistance from her husband, according to McClarty.

The settlement, according to information released by the attorney, says liability was based on failure to properly monitor the patient; improper dosage of anesthesia, and lack of supervision over the nurse who administered the anesthesia. It further says that following the abortion Ms. Pierce was not properly awakened from the anesthesia. As a result she experience unwitnessed cardiac arrest.

Ms. Pierce died Oct. 10 at Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, according to the attorney. Shortly before her death she had been transferred to Emory University Hospital for extensive evaluation. This showed, McClarty said, no detectable brain activity and no possibility of recovery.

Judge Howell People of the Chancery Court of Hamilton County, Tenn., approved the settlement in behalf of the minor child. He denied the appeal of lawyers for the Atlanta Surgi-Center to seal the records of the case.

Ms. Pierce was 19 weeks pregnant at the time of the abortion, McClarty’s office said. A licensed practical nurse, she was working for a temporary service at the time and was in good health, the lawyer said.

McClarty said he has represented the family “over the years” and is not associated with the American Rights Coalition. This is a non-profit group working out of Chattanooga which works with crisis pregnancy centers, doctors and lawyers in the local areas.

Charles Wysong, head of the coalition, said in an interview last May that two pro-life sidewalk counselors witnessed an ambulance leaving the abortion clinic last March 10. Later his office received an anonymous call giving Ms. Pierce’s name and the hospital where she was being treated. He in turn notified the Fulton County District Attorney in a letter dated April 8, 1989.

On May 11, investigators from that office and the office of the Fulton County Solicitor General raided the Atlanta Surgi-Center. Patient records, files and other material were seized in an attempt to find out whether the clinic was following state regulations governing abortion clinics.

Violations were found at the Surgi-Center after an unannounced raid July 12, 1989, by the state Department of Human Resources. Serious problems were listed in a notice sent to the abortion clinic with a letter threatening to revoke the facility’s permit effective Aug. 24, 1989.

One area of the report concerned administering of anesthesia and the protocol used. The same dosages were given five patients March 11, 1989 although the weights of the women ranged from 107 to 167 pounds.

According to the document, the consultant anesthesiologist stated that she had been in the facility ‘perhaps a couple of times” in 1988 and that she had dropped in occasionally in 1989. She expressed surprise at the dose of anesthetic being used and the fact that a standard dose was used for each patient regardless of weight.

The document also stated that the records of a “complicated case” on March 11, 1989, did not clearly indicate the condition of the person on discharge from the facility, did not show that oxygen was administered, and did not show that a facility staff member accompanied the patient upon transfer.

Last Friday, Jan. 5, Marjorie Smith, deputy director of the Office of Regulatory Services of the DHR, said her office has entered into a consent order with the abortion clinic in which the facility has agreed to do certain additional procedures and take additional actions that would further protect patients receiving care there.

“They have assured us they have corrected the problems mentioned” in the report, she said. “We will be monitoring them very closely.”