California Health Department Cites Planned Parenthood Failures in Investigation of Teen RU486 Death.

The California Department of Health and Human Services has released the results of its investigation into the death of Holly Patterson, the young teen who died September 17, 2003, after receiving RU486 from her local Planned Parenthood clinic.

The report does not challenge the county coroner's earlier conclusion that Holly died as a result of a massive infection resulting from her drug-induced abortion. However, it specifically faults the clinic for failing to follow procedure.

The hospital where Holly died is not cited for any negligence in its efforts to treat her. But both the clinic and the hospital are taken to task for failing to report her death in an appropriate manner.

Both the Valley Care Medical Center and Planned Parenthood's Hayward clinic were faulted by the state for failing to report the death as an "unusual occurrence." A hospital spokeswoman told the San Francisco Chronicle (2/25/04) that Valley Care did report Holly's death to the coroner's office, but didn't think it met the criteria. A spokeswoman for the state health department said that the death "of a very young woman who had received drugs for an early medical abortion" certainly did qualify as such an occurrence (Mercury News, 2/25/04).

Planned Parenthood officials said they didn't report the death because Holly died at the hospital, rather than the clinic, implying that the hospital was responsible for reporting the death. The state told Planned Parenthood it was wrong in that assumption (Mercury News, 2/25/04).

Planned Parenthood was also reprimanded by the state for not obtaining Holly's signature on one of the three required consent forms.

Holly's father, Monty Patterson, said he and his wife were "appalled" by the lack of accountability shown by the clinic and the hospital.