By Cheryl Sullenger
Cleveland, OH — For the second time since the death of Lakisha Wilson last year, abortionist Lisa Perriera has sent yet another patient to the emergency room.
An ambulance arrived at Preterm abortion clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, shortly before 2:20 pm on Friday, April 24, 2015. At 2:30 p.m., pro-life activist Fred Sokol filmed a woman on a gurney, “wrapped like a mummy,” in his words. She was completely covered in pink and purple blankets as she was wheeled out of Preterm and loaded into an awaiting ambulance.
There appeared to be no visible IV bag or any other sign of ongoing medical treatment.
The ambulance then sat parked in front of Preterm for an additional 15 minutes before leaving for a hospital presumed to be Case Medical Center, where Perriera holds admitting privileges. Her current condition — or even if she survived — remains unknown.
Pastor Dale Henkel, who is a regular on the sidewalks outside Preterm praying and offering help to abortion-bound women, confirmed to Operation Rescue that Perriera was the abortionist on duty at the abortion facility on the day of the incident.
gurney with woman
“Unfortunately, we have no one to blame for Perriera’s spate of botched abortions but the Ohio Department of Health, which is well aware of Perriera’s apparent incompetence and other dangerous conditions at Preterm. Yet this agency that should be protecting women from abortion abuses has turned a blind eye to the plight of women in favor of keeping this abortion facility open,” said Newman. “While the Department of Health makes excuses for known hazards at Preterm, the causality count continues to rise.”
Sokol reported that several people inside the building stood in the windows on the third and fourth floors watching events on the street below unfold with apparent concern. At least one person affiliated with Preterm came out and took pictures of Sokol’s vehicle license plate in an apparent effort to intimidate him as he documented the incident with his cell phone camera.
Perriera was responsible for the botched second trimester abortion that killed Lakisha Wilson on March 21, 2014, but was never held accountable by the Ohio Department of Health or the Medical Board, despite evidence that laws were violated. Calls for a criminal investigation have also fallen on deaf ears.
One day shy of the first anniversary of Wilson’s fatal abortion, another African-American Perriera patient was transported from Preterm by ambulance on March 20, 2015. So far, a request made by Operation Rescue for the 911 records related to the March 20 incident has been uncharacteristically ignored by city authorities.
Operation Rescue has already requested 911 records from Friday’s medical emergency and continues to await a reply.
With all five surgical rooms located on the third floor of Preterm, the only way a gurney can reach injured patients is via a cramped elevator that malfunctioned the day of Wilson’s emergency, delaying care. Also delaying critical emergency care to the dying woman was the fact that the elevator was too small for the gurney to fit in a laying position. This prevented EMS workers from intubating her until she was in the ambulance.
Preterm’s elevator also was completely broken down during another incident on March 31, 2012, when additional assistance had to be called to carry a 300-pound patient down two flights of stairs. That woman suffered from hemorrhaging after an abortion.
Witnesses have told Operation Rescue that they frequently see a truck from a local elevator repair company at Preterm, indicating that a dangerous unreliability issue persists at Preterm.
“The majority of Preterm’s abortion customers are solicited from the African-American community. If Black lives really mattered, the Ohio Department of Health would shut down Preterm in the interest of public safety. It is scandalous to think that race played any part in the Health Department’s decision to disregard the dangers at Preterm, but unfortunately, that possibility exists.”
Incredibly, the Physicians for Reproductive Choice has announced that Perriera will receive the George Tiller, MD, Abortion Provider Award for 2015, which “recognizes a physician early in their career who provides abortions while demonstrating leadership and courage, even in the face of adversity.” She is set to be honored at an awards ceremony to be held on New York City on June 1.
The PRC also announced that Perriera has been promoted to a position as the Ryan Residency Training Program Director at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a job she apparently has yet to begin.