New Mexico Medical Investigator Conceals Cause of Death in Abortion Case

A series of shocking emails released by New Mexico Alliance for Life and published by the Albuquerque Journal  indicate a potential civil conspiracy in the cover-up of the death of 23-year-old Albuquerque woman, Keisha Atkins. Atkins was undergoing a late-term abortion at scandal-ridden Southwestern Women's Options last February when she experienced a medical emergency and was rushed to University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) where she died. 

Emails obtained by pro-life attorney Michael Seibel, who is representing Atkins' estate show UNMH emergency doctors "floored" by the outcome of Atkins' autopsy, which stated her cause of death as "natural" "due to pregnancy" from a "pulmonary thromboembolism." Pulmonary thromboembolism [PE] is a type of blood clot in the lungs that is a leading cause of death in pregnancy. 

The highly questionable autopsy report released by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, located at the University of New Mexico, was conducted by Dr. Lauren Dvorscak MD, who is also an Assistant Professor of Pathology at UNM School of Medicine.

One shocking email, from UNMH Emergency Medicine Dr. Trenton Wray reads:

"Everything about her course was consistent with septic abortion → refractory septic cardiomyopathy → death."

Days before Atkins' family was to meet with hospital doctors to discuss the autopsy results, Wray also wrote:

"I have to admit, I was floored by the cause of death being a massive PE."

The emails also indicate multiple doctors diagnosed Atkins with a massive infection from the abortion, which the UNMH doctors affirm caused Atkins untimely death, and found no evidence of "pulmonary thromboembolism."

The UNMH radiologist, Dr. Gary Hatch, who performed a CT scan of Atkins' lung and heart stated,

"Second review reveals no segmental or larger emboli. There just simply isn't PE."

Live Action News reported , "It seems the only people who see Atkins' manner of death as "natural" are those who signed the documents certifying it in the office of the New Mexico Medical Investigator (OMI)." Read more below.

When questioned by UNM Hospital doctors Wray and Hatch, Dvorscak states that she does not know whether the source of the embolism is from the septic abortion, despite her autopsy attributing the cause of death as an embolism, solely to the pregnancy, "However, there is no way for me to know if she embolized from a deep vein, completely separate from her sepsis. Unfortunately, I don't think we will know."

Another email from UNMH radiologist Dr. Gary Hatch states, "The autopsy diagnosis doesn't make sense to me. Who did the autopsy?" Following up in another email, Hatch states, "There was no massive PE present at the time of scan. Period...I am also confident there was no segmental or greater PE..."


“The OMI office really had to go out of their way to come up with such a biased and compromised autopsy report, one that wholly overlooks the diagnosis of every single doctor at UNMH who treated Keisha Atkins for a septic abortion infection and symptoms from the infection,” said Seibel.  "My client and her family were denied their rights to justice and due process in this matter, while the Office of the Medical Investigator has attempted to shield Curtis Boyd from medical liability, as well as deterring an investigation into the source of infection.”
 
The emails indicate that the physicians who treated Atkins expressed concerns about the findings of the autopsy conducted by Dr. Lauren Dvorscak after they diagnosed and treated her symptoms from a septic infection relating to the abortion, while they did not see evidence of a pulmonary embolism.

"This sends a chilling effect across the entire medical community since we can no longer trust the Medical Investigator's office to operate in an unbiased and ethical manner," said Elisa Martinez, spokesperson for the Atkins estate. "To put honest doctors' careers at risk in order to protect Curtis Boyd's business interests is simply unconscionable and gives the appearance of civil conspiracy."

NMAFL was the first to uncover the close and longstanding collaboration between the University of New Mexico, (where the Office of the Medical Investigator is located), and Southwestern Women's Options abortion clinic. NM Alliance for Life has questioned the potential  conflict of interest  between the Office of the Medical Investigator located at the University of New Mexico and Southwestern Women's Options. UNM and SWO have a longstanding collaboration involving harvesting of infant body parts for research, training of UNM residents at SWO and SWO doctors receiving faculty appointments at UNM.   Both UNM and SWO have maintained that the clinic does not receive remuneration for the supply of infant body parts provided to the University, however, a congressional panel and an NM District Court found potential violations of state law in their exchange of body parts.