Woman’s death from ‘septic abortion’ days after obtaining abortion pill sparks lawsuit

A 24-year-old mother has allegedly died from a ‘septic abortion’ just days after obtaining the abortion pill at Planned Parenthood. A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in the State of Nevada against Dignity Health Emerus, the hospital system where the mother went for help.

The complaint, provided to Live Action News by Bighorn Law, the law firm representing Michael Dixon, the spouse and administer of the estate of Alyona Dixon, does not name Planned Parenthood as a defendant in the case. While the lawsuit alleges that abortion drugs were prescribed by Planned Parenthood, the complaint does not specify whether Dixon actually took the drugs.

“The lawsuit alleges that doctors at Dignity Health’s Blue Diamond campus should have seen the severity of Dixon’s problems on Sept. 26 and properly treated her,” 8NewsNow reported.

“The lawsuit names Dignity Health Emerus – Blue Diamond, Dr. Hayden Maag and an unspecified number of unnamed nurses and companies,” the media outlet wrote. “It seeks payment of Dixon’s medical, funeral and burial expenses, special damages, compensatory damages and punitive damages — in excess of $15,000 for each of the categories. The lawsuit also seeks general damages for Dixon’s husband, Michael, and son, Wesley.”

The lawsuit alleges that Dignity Health (et al.) “failed to exercise that degree of care, diligence, and skill ordinarily exercised by nurses, medical providers, medical facilities, doctors, and staff in good standing in the community by, among other things, failing to follow the appropriate standard of care in assessing, evaluating, treating and discharging ALYONA.”

The case also alleged that Dignity Health “knew or should have known that a female patient with a history of vaginal bleeding and/or abdominal pain required a pelvic exam and/or a stat consult with an OB/GYN to rule out more serious medical conditions.”

Dr. Hany Atallah, chief medical officer at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, reviewed Dixon’s medical records for the Plaintiffs and noted the possibility that “retained products of conception” may have been present, which he claimed “could reflect an abortion in progress or blood products.”

Visit to Planned Parenthood 

Dixon, pregnant at the time, allegedly presented to Planned Parenthood on 9/22/2022 for a termination of pregnancy.

Atallah wrote that while at Planned Parenthood, Dixon “had a physical exam and an ultrasound evaluation which revealed a single pregnancy with an estimated gestational age of 8 weeks 5 days,” and was then allegedly given “mifepristone followed 24-48 hours later by misoprostol intravaginally.”

According to Atallah, Dixon had “previously delivered a baby in December 2021.”

“She was pregnant when she visited Planned Parenthood and had made a decision to terminate her pregnancy. Her last period was noted to have been on 8/17/2022. She had a physical exam and an ultrasound evaluation which revealed a single pregnancy with an estimated gestational age of 8 weeks 5 days. After appropriate counseling she was determined to be an appropriate candidate for elective termination of pregnancy with mifepristone followed 24-48 hours later by misoprostol intravaginally. She was appropriately counseled about the risks of the medical abortion and was discharged home,” Atallah wrote.

Although the drug regimen approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000 includes mifepristone and misoprostol, the current approved FDA protocol calls for misoprostol to be taken buccally (in the cheek pouch), not by vaginal administration.

Previous cases of vaginal insertion of misoprostol were speculated to have led to the deaths of other women, although later evaluations determined this to be inconclusive.

A Black Box Warning on the Mifepristone label warns consumers that “[s]erious and sometimes fatal infections and bleeding occur very rarely following spontaneous, surgical, and medical abortions, including following MIFEPREX use. No causal relationship between the use of MIFEPREX and misoprostol and these events has been established.”

In 2010, the FDA identified “off label” use of the abortion pill as the cause of several serious adverse effects, including death. The FDA report went on to state that “[s]epsis is a known risk related to any type of abortion. The symptoms in all of these cases of serious infection were not the usual symptoms of sepsis. We do not know whether using Mifeprex and misoprostol caused these deaths. In all but one case, the misoprostol was used intravaginally.”

Known potential risks/adverse effects of chemical abortion (abortion pill) are abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, heavy bleeding, and maternal death:

1st Trimester Abortion | The Abortion Pill | What Is Abortion?

Case Reviewed by Expert

Dr. Hany Atallah’s letter alleged that upon arriving at Dignity Health on September 26, 2022, Dixon’s “chief complaint was ‘sharp tower abdominal pain since yesterday.’”

“The history noted that she had vaginal bleeding which had decreased and abdominal pain that had started the day prior. Her initial vital signs were BP 125/72, pulse 93, respirations 18, oxygen saturation 98%, temperature 37.3. Her exam was notable for tenderness in the right lower quadrant with no rebound and no guarding. The remainder of the physical exam was unremarkable. No pelvic exam was done,” Atallah noted.

According to Atallah, Dixon received pain medications, and a CT and ultrasound were ordered.

“Ms. Dixon’s labs were significant for an elevated white blood cell count of 16.53. Her hemoglobin and hematocrit were 13.4 and 40.1, respectively. The urinalysis was significant for a specific gravity of >=1.030 and ketones of 15. The ultrasound was interpreted by Dr. Justin J Puopolo and revealed ‘abnormal vascular flow between the endometrium and the myometrium at the uterine fundus could represent retained products of conception and should be correlated with the patient’s serial beta-hcg levels. Complex material within the endocervical canal could reflect an abortion in progress or blood products,” he wrote.

Dr. Maag “documents a lengthy conversation with the patient and family about work-up findings and possibility of retained products of conception. Ms. Dixon assured Dr. Maag that she would make a follow up appointment with her gynecologist and would have a low threshold to return to the ED if the symptoms worsened or changed,” Dr. Atallah also wrote. “Dr. Maag documents a low suspicion for septic process/systemic infection.”

“The following day on 9/27/2022 at 11:12 PM Ms. Dixon went to Desert View Hospital and registered in the emergency department. Her chief complaint was lower abdominal pain with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea for one day. Pain was in the left and right lower quadrants of her abdomen. She also reporting vaginal bleeding. She was triaged with an acuity of 3,” Dr. Atallah wrote.

There, “Dr. Clark documented his clinical impression as abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, severe dehydration, acute renal failure, leukocytosis, sepsis, lactic acidosis, hypokalemia, sinus tachycardia, metabolic acidosis, pulseless electrical activity, respiratory failure,” Atallah stated.

Although Dr. Clark “documents sepsis was considered,” he found that “Dixon’s symptoms had improved and her heart rate had decreased to 121.” The ED physician then “suggested severe dehydration versus sepsis with collapsed IVC and poor perfusion of kidneys and bowel.” Shortly thereafter, her condition worsened and Dixon was transferred to Summerlin Hospital.

“At 3:10 AM Ms. Dixon acutely worsened and became more short of breath and had chest tightness with a heart rate of 150. Her lung sounds were noted to have rales and chest x-ray showed pulmonary edema. Ms. Dixon was started on BIPAP and was given Lasix. Ms. Dixon continued to deteriorate and required intubation and sedation. She vomited during intubation and about 5 minutes after intubation she went into a rhythm of pulseless ventricular tachycardia then asystole then pulseless electrical activity with bradycardia. ACLS was administered and multiple interventions were performed but she was pronounced at 5:32 AM,” Dr. Atallah wrote.

The Clark County Coroner’s Office gave her cause of death on September 28, 2023, as “complications from septic abortion,” 8NewsNow claimed.

The complaint alleges that the Emergency Department physician “negligently failed to conduct a pelvic exam” on Dixon and “failed to order a consult with an OB/GYN despite ALYONA’S abnormal lab results, her clinical history, and her abnormal diagnostic imaging…”

Instead, the physician “negligently discharged ALYONA without preforming a pelvic exam and without ordering an immediate consult with an OB/GYN” a point the complaint alleged “was a substantial factor in ALYONA’S untimely death,” the lawsuit claimed.

The lawsuit also alleged that Dignity Health “negligently did not have a credentialed OB/GYN on-call at the facility,” which they claimed was also a “substantial factor in ALYONA’S untimely death,” allegedly from the septic abortion.