Chula Vista Abortionist Suspended

Dr. Phillip Rand Had Butchered Another Woman
http://www.sdnewsnotes.com/ed/articles/2004/0412an.htm

On September 15, 2004 the California Office of Administrative Hearings issued an order suspending the license of abortionist Philip Rand. Rand worked for a chain of abortion clinics, Clinica Medica para La Mujer de Hoy, that spanned from San Diego to the Los Angeles area. All of the clinics were located in working class Latino neighborhoods.
Rand had been accused of harming women for years until the Medical Board of California decided that the last abortion he botched was so egregious he was considered a public threat. While pro-lifers are rejoicing over the news that he can no longer legally perform abortions, some are wondering why it took so long for the medical board to act against a man who has a long history of medical malpractice lawsuits against him.
Greg Anthony, a lawyer who has litigated against Rand responded to the news saying, “Rand has had a lot of evil around him. The guy has a career of malfeasance.”
“Hallelujah” was Operation Rescue West president Troy Newman’s reaction. Newman, who for years picketed the Chula Vista clinic where Rand worked, was elated to hear the news. “That guy was such scum,” Newman said in a telephone interview from his home in Wichita, Kansas. “Almost ten years ago, I was at the Chula Vista clinic and I was yelling at him ‘you’re too old to kill babies.’ He slowly turned around, raised his shaky right arm, and flipped me off.”
Newman added that pro-lifers have being praying for a long time that Rand would stop performing abortions. “But,” he said, “sometimes I think the devil had a grip on him.”
Cheryl Sullenger, another former San Diego pro-lifer who protested outside of the Chula Vista location of Clinica Medica said she was “Ecstatic” when told that Rand had lost his license. Sullenger said she had made a flyer outlining how many times Rand had botched abortions and had included medical board records. “We showed them to women who came to the clinic. Often times the woman would be horrified. Some of the women turned away because of the flyers.”

Included in Sullenger’s flyer was mention of a July 16, 1999 “Dateline NBC” segment about Rand. According to the flyer, which cites the segment’s transcript, Pamela Battle was awarded four million dollars because of Rand’s negligence. In April of 1978, Battle was eight months pregnant. She called Rand in the middle of the night because she was experiencing heavy bleeding. Battle told the “Dateline” reporter that Rand had told her to go back to sleep. When Battle continued to bleed she rushed to the hospital. When Rand arrived at the hospital he told her that she did not need an emergency cesarean section to deliver the baby. According to Battle, Rand argued against medical intervention for an hour which severely damaged her baby. After Battle sued Rand for damages, he filed for bankruptcy. Rand had dropped his medical malpractice insurance years before; saying it was too expensive. In spite of the judgment against Rand, Battle could not collect any money. The segment notes that Battle ended up living on public assistance in a one-bedroom apartment with her brain-damaged son. “He never apologized. He just said, ‘These things’ happen,'” Battle told “Dateline.”
Tim Rutherford, the lawyer who, with his law partner, secured a 31 million dollar judgment against Rand in the Battle case, said, “I’m surprised it took this long,” when told of Rand’s suspension.
Sullenger’s flyer also outlined the story of Marcia Lattimore. After going to Sharp Cabrillo because of an incomplete abortion in May of 1990, Rand attempted to complete the abortion. In the process, Rand perforated Lattimore’s uterus. “He lied to me,” Lattimore said at the time. “When he discharged me, Dr. Rand told me my uterus had not been perforated.”
Lattimore went on to say that she knew he had perforated her uterus. “My lips were purple (from internal bleeding), and I was crying and telling him that I should not go home. But I did. And I kept going back every other day, because of the pain. But he kept telling me that nothing was wrong with me.”
Lattimore added that Rand told her that until she received a medical degree she should let him decide what was wrong. Lattimore was later admitted to Sharp Cabrillo and saw another doctor. After undergoing emergency surgery, Lattimore recovered although she lost two and a half feet of her intestine. Doctors told her that it was surprising that she survived as long as she did considering her injuries.”
The last abortion that Rand botched was on a woman whom California Medical Board documents list as A.P. Last August, the documents state, A.P. went to the Santa Ana Clinica Medica Para La Mujer de Hoy to undergo a second trimester abortion. In spite of not having the proper facilities to perform a second trimester abortion, Rand attempted the procedure. Medical board records show that Rand did not administer any anesthesia or painkillers, both standard in the procedure. Upon completion of the procedure, Rand left the clinic. When A.P. became ill, the two unlicensed medical assistants who had assisted Rand called Rand. En route to his San Diego home, he told them to call 911. When the paramedics from the Santa Ana Fire department arrived at the clinic, they found A.P. in a pool of blood. One paramedic was so incensed by how he found A.P. that he reported Rand to his supervisor who in turn notified the medical board. A signed declaration from the paramedic noted, “This was the worst post partum patient situation at a medical clinic I have ever encountered during my time as a paramedic.”
According to Santa Ana Fire Agency records, abortionist Nicholas Braemer, M.D., made the call to 911. At the time of the call, Braemer’s license had been suspended.
In his suspension order, Office of Administrative Hearings judge Steven Adler said that “serious injury will result to the public before the noticed hearing (March 2005) can be heard” if Rand were allowed to practice in the interim. Rand was granted a hearing on September 28 to defend himself against the suspension order. But, although he has successfully defended his license in the past – despite numerous lawsuits, investigations, and reprimands by the California Medical Board – he decided not to challenge the order and allow the suspension to stand.