SUMMARY: Liliana Cortez, age 22, died September 25, 1986 after an abortion performed by Leo Keneally at Her Medical Clinic in Los Angeles, CA.

Twenty-two-year-old Liliana Cortez, an immigrant, underwent a safe and legal abortion by Leo Kenneally at his Her Medical Clinic in Los Angeles on September 20, 1986.

Other than having asthma, Liliana was in good health when she went for her abortion. After the procedure, she went into cardiac arrest.

There was a 40-minute delay until the paramedics arrived to transport Liliana to a hospital. She died five days later.

Liliana’s death was ruled a “therapeutic misadventure,” which a coroner’s spokesman called, “a nice medical term for a mistake.”

An attorney for Her Medical Clinic said, “If something like this happened at a hospital … people would just say it was bad luck, one of those flukey things. But … all of a sudden they make it seem like these (abortion clinics) are terrible places where terrible things happen.”

Donna Heim and Michelle Thames also died after abortions at Her Medical Clinic.

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Sources:

• Los Angeles Herald Examiner 2-22-88
• “Deaths of 3 Women Following Abortions Spur Clinic Probes,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 29, 1988
• “State Panel Accuses MD of Negligence in 3 Deaths,” Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1990