avoids fine after fatality

Antonesha Ross‘ gravesite Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune

Antonesha Ross, who died in 2009 after having an abortion at the Women’s Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood, is buried at Sunset Memorial Lawns in Northbrook. An assistant medical examiner said the 18 year old died of severe bronchopneumonia.

Antonesha Ross, who died in 2009 after having an abortion at the Women’s Aid Clinic in Lincolnwood, is buried at Sunset Memorial Lawns in Northbrook. An assistant medical examiner said the 18 year old died of severe bronchopneumonia. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

When 18 year old Antonesha Ross came to the Women’s Aid Clinic seeking a first trimester abortion, a doctor examined her and found that she had an upper respiratory infection with swelling in her throat and "beefy red" tonsils.

The abortion would have to wait, the doctor told her. Ross couldn’t safely have the procedure until she had been examined by a primary care doctor and treated with antibiotics.

But when Ross returned to the Lincolnwood clinic six days later, on May 8, 2009, a doctor and a nurse anesthetist went ahead with the abortion without documenting that Ross‘ infection had been treated or that they had re examined her for signs of upper respiratory infection, according to state inspection records. and, statistically speaking, one of the safest lasted only minutes. But within hours, Ross went into cardiopulmonary arrest and died.

State officials imposed $36,000 in fines in October 2011 over Ross‘ care, as well as for poor sanitation and staffing violations. But the clinic’s owner, Larisa Rozansky, has yet to pay, creating another source of outrage for Ross‘ grieving family.

"At the end of the day, there is a young lady that is gone, and she cannot see her children grow up, and her family misses her," said Ross‘ cousin Janell Austin Tuft of College Park, Ga. "And for us to not get justice for them not to pay the fine it’s not right. It’s just not right."

Former clinic Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune

The site of the former Women’s Aid Clinic at 4751 W. Touhy Ave. in Lincolnwood.

The site of the former Women’s Aid Clinic at 4751 W. Touhy Ave. in Lincolnwood. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

Rozansky closed the Women’s Aid Clinic in November 2011, just three weeks after the fine was imposed. In December she formed a new clinic. The new operation had a similar name the Women’s Aid Center as well as two of the same phone numbers as the old clinic and, for a while, the same website and location.

But Rozansky and her lawyer have argued that the two clinics are entirely different entities and that the old clinic, which filed for bankruptcy before closing, has no money to pay the fine.

The state has challenged that interpretation, first in Cook County Circuit Court, where a judge ruled that Rozansky had to turn over $77, and now in the Illinois Appellate Court, where both sides are filing briefs in preparation for oral arguments.

"If you can close down the clinic and reopen it under a different name, that’s just ludicrous," Tuft said.

Rozansky’s lawyer, Scott Skaletsky, declined to comment.

Antonesha Ross‘ Facebook page, which remains online with more than 400 friends, shows a teen with a warm smile and a taste for the singer Keyshia Cole and the movie "The Color Purple." Ross wrote poetry and loved fashion, her cousin said, and she had a laugh that could make you forget you were having a bad day.

Nurse anesthetist’s license was suspended after third abortion death Nara Schoenberg

Nurse anesthetist Lawrence J. Hill was named in three Chicago area malpractice lawsuits that were settled out of court for $300,000 to $2.97 million between 2004 and 2006, according to Cook County Circuit Court records.

Two of the patients in those cases died after abortions at Chicago area clinics;.

Nurse anesthetist Lawrence J. Hill was named in three Chicago area malpractice lawsuits that were settled out of court for $300,000 to $2.97 million between 2004 and 2006, according to Cook County Circuit Court records.

Two of the patients in those cases died after abortions at Chicago area clinics;."She was my sister, you know?" said Tuft, 29. "She was my little sister. I wouldn’t consider her my cousin. We did everything together. We went to get our hair done, our nails done. We would go shopping. She used to spend the night over at my house all the time."

Ross grew up in Evanston, attended Evanston Township High School and was pursuing a GED at the time of her death, family members said. She talked about wanting to go to college and was due to start a new job within days. She had two young children, 6 months and 20 months old.

Ross was about 12 weeks pregnant and had been suffering from an upper respiratory infection for two weeks when she made her first visit to the clinic on May 2, 2009, accompanied by her mother, according to inspection records from the Illinois Department of Public Health. During that visit, a doctor found that tissue behind her nose was "bulging" and the back of her throat was severely enlarged, the records state.

When she was told she couldn’t safely have general anesthesia, she asked about local anesthesia. But the doctor told her she couldn’t "safely have the procedure" until the infection had been treated with antibiotics and evaluated by
facebook besthairbuy a family doctor or internist, state records say.

When Ross returned to the clinic for her abortion on May 8, clinic employees failed to document whether she had been treated for the infection, state records say.