Texas Mom, 35, Dies After Hemorrhaging Due to State Abortion Ban: 'Everyone Turned Their Backs on Us During That Day'

• Porsha Ngumezi was 11 weeks pregnant when she suffered a miscarriage and heavy bleeding for six hours
• A 35-year-old woman from Texas needed a D&C, but doctors avoided the medical procedure, which is also used for abortions, due to a state ban
• She died a few hours later in hospital, leaving behind her husband and their two children

A Texas woman died after not receiving proper medical care for an abortion due to the state’s strict abortion ban — the fifth case reported by ProPublica in which death occurred as a direct result of the reversal Roe v. Wade.

On June 11, 2023, Porsha Ngumezi, a 35-year-old mother of two, suffered a miscarriage at 11 weeks pregnant and was bleeding profusely. The nurses reported that she was “throwing out large clots the size of grapefruits.”

According to the source, she bled so much over the course of six hours that she needed two blood transfusions in the emergency room at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital.

Porsha’s husband, Hope Ngumezi, called his mother, a former doctor, and told the couple that Porsha needed a dilation and curettage (D&C).

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Danielle Villasana

Dilation and curettage is a surgical procedure where the cervix is ​​dilated and an instrument called a curette is used to suction or scrape the lining of the uterus, removing the baby from inside the uterus. D&C is done during the first trimester for miscarriages and abortions.

Despite his mother’s advice, Hope and Porsha were told by their doctor that the hospital’s “routine” was to give her a drug called misoprostol to help her body miscarry completely.

“The thought I had that day was, ‘They’re the experts, aren’t they?’ I know they’ve seen abortions many times, so they’re well equipped to know what to do,” Hope told KVUE.

However, Porsha died three hours later.

“It could have been prevented,” Hope added. “It seemed like everyone turned their backs on us that day.”

Hope Ngumezi after his wife Porsha died.

Danielle Villasana

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ProPublica reported that dozens of doctors reviewed Porsha’s case and agreed that her case was preventable. Experts claim that misoprostol is too risky to use when the mother is bleeding so heavily, and a D&C should have been performed.

“Misoprostol in the 11th week will not work fast enough,” said Dr. Amber Truehart, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the University of New Mexico Center for Reproductive Health. “The patient will continue to bleed and have a higher risk of going into hemorrhagic shock.”

The medical examiner on the case determined Porsha’s cause of death to be hemorrhage.

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Hope Ngumezi and Porsha Ngumezi.

Danielle Villasana

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Texas’ near total abortion ban states that doctors cannot perform the procedure unless the mother’s life is deemed to be in danger. Any doctors who violate the law face up to 99 years in prison, which has led many medical professionals to avoid D&Cs even in abortion cases, for fear of punishment.

“Stigma and fear exist for D&Cs in a way that they don’t exist for misoprostol,” said Dr. Alison Goulding, a gynecologist in Houston, reports ProPublica. “Physicians assume that D&C is no longer the standard in Texas, even in cases where it should be recommended. People are afraid: they see D&C as abortion and abortion as illegal.”

Hope Ngumezi with her two sons.

Danielle Villasana

dr. Gabrielle Taper, a gynecologist in Austin, added that after the state’s abortion law went into effect, “there was a lot more hesitation about: when can we intervene, do we have enough evidence to say this is a miscarriage, how long do we wait, what will we use to feel definite?”

Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital declined to comment on Porsha’s treatment, noting that “care for each patient is unique to that person.”

“All Houston Methodist Hospitals follow all state laws, including the abortion law in effect in Texas,” a hospital spokesperson told the outlet.

Hope said he feels a lot of anger knowing the laws have affected his wife’s care. Now his children have no mother.

“The children were small at the time, they were 3 and 5 years old,” he told KVUE. “They barely started life. And now they have to go through life without their mom.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education