"Isabel"       Although only in 11th grade, this woman was 22-years-old and 12-weeks into her first pregnancy when she went to a doctor’s office to get an abortion in 1981. She had no pre-existing health problems, but she wasn’t able to stay still while the doctor was doing the abortion. She was given a sedative but was still “uncooperative” when the abortion was resumed. The doctor suggested that the woman go to the hospital because he was sure that he had perforated her uterus. The woman and her mom refused. She was kept at the doctor’s office for several hours and her vital signs remained normal, so she was released with the instructions to return for follow-up the next day. She did not do this, and despite repeated efforts from the doctor to get her to return to the office or go to the hospital, early in the morning, 4 days after the procedure, the family called the doctor and asked him to go to their home. He arrived approximately an hour later and called an ambulance. The woman bled to death from a perforated uterus before reaching the hospital in the ambulance. (Centers For Disease Control, Abortion Surveillance, Annual Summary 1981, Issued November 1985, p. 11-12)