Affiliate: Planned Parenthood of Southern New England
covers Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Locations: 14. Covered here: 11.
Medical malpractice suit: Danbury.
Sexual abuse cases: Enfield, West Hartford.
Patients who feel a need to file a complaint:
Connecticut Regulation and Licensure – Reporting a Complaint
Three Locations
Connecticut state representative Treneé McGee (D)
Speech in front of the Connecticut House of Representatives April 19, 2022.
The first case she discusses is covered under Enfield below.
The second case is from 2018, and the man’s name was Parkinson. We don’t have documents and the sparse press coverage doesn’t give needed details, so as of now it’s not covered under Norwich.
The third case is covered under West Hartford below.
Bridgeport
Connecticut state representative Treneé McGee (D)
Speech in front of the Connecticut House of Representatives April 19, 2022
Discussing an incident with a friend of hers.
CT Bridgeport Google 1. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Bridgeport Google 2. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Bridgeport Google 3. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Bridgeport Google 4. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Bridgeport Google 5. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Bridgeport Google 6. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Bridgeport Google 7. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Bridgeport Google 8. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Bridgeport Google 9. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Bridgeport Yelp 1
CT Bridgeport Yelp 2
Danbury
Lafo
Excerpts:
- On February 10, 2020, the plaintiff . . . presented to the Danbury Planned Parenthood for an evaluation after she received a positive home pregnancy test.
- During her visit . . . the defendant . . . performed a transvaginal ultrasound which she read to show there was no fetus and just an empty sac at 6 weeks and 3 days gestation.
- As a result of her reading of the ultrasound the defendant . . . recommended a medical abortion for what she determined to be a non-viable pregnancy prescribing Mifeprex and Misoprostol which the plaintiff took as instructed.
- On or about February 12, 2020, at approximately 3:00 AM, after experiencing severe cramping and discomfort, the plaintiff delivered a deceased but intact male fetus with a weight of 474.5 grams consistent with a 22 week gestation age into a toilet at her home.
CT Danbury Google 1. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Danbury Google 2. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Danbury Google 3. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Danbury Google 4. Accessed 02.17.22.
Enfield
Lanza
Article from the Journal Inquirer:
Man imprisoned for sex with underage Enfield girls
A man convicted of having a three-way sexual encounter with two underage Enfield girls, one 14 and the other 12, when he was 18 was sentenced Tuesday in Hartford Superior Court on Tuesday to spend two years in prison . . .
Affidavits supporting Lanza’s arrest claim that the older girl told Enfield police that she had a relationship with Lanza starting in February 2014 and continuing on until April 2015. She also said that he got her pregnant in November 2014, while she was still 14, and claimed that Lanza forced her to have an abortion.
The affidavits do not explain how the girl alleged that Lanza forced her to have the abortion, but did include her statement that Lanza made an appointment for her at Planned Parenthood in Enfield and that Lanza’s father had driven her to the clinic.
CT Enfield Google 1. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Enfield Google 2. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Enfield Google 3. Accessed 02.17.22.
Hartford
Health Violation Document:
Highlight:
The clinic failed to have needed emergency supplies.
Thompson
Thompson Malpractice Complaint
Excerpt:
10. As a direct and proximate result of the aforementioned departures from the standard of care, the plaintiff suffered the following serious and severe injuries:
a. Perforated uterus;
b. Perforated bowel;
c. Need for emergency hysterectomy;
d. Need for emergency bowel resection; and
e. Need for emergency unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy.
CT Hartford Google 1. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Hartford Google 2. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Hartford Google 3. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Hartford Yelp 1
Meriden
CT Meriden Google 1. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Meriden Google 2. Accessed 04.27.21.
New Haven
Health Violation Documents:
Highlights:
The autoclave, used to sterilize instruments, had not been cleaned for three months. The clinic manager was “not sure” why it hadn’t been cleaned.
According to the inspection, “the facility failed to ensure that infection control practices were maintained.” The sterilization logs didn’t document the results of the steam indicator placed in each load of sterilized instruments.
Medications were stored in a refrigerator with cans of ginger ale for the staff.
Chairs in the recovery room were cloth-covered, meaning that they couldn’t be properly sterilized or cleaned.
Prefilled syringes weren’t labeled with the dates and times filled, the initials of the staff member who filled them, and the doses.
Staff
The staff didn’t properly clean instruments. Staff failed to mix the solution for cleaning instruments properly. Staff didn’t measure the amount of detergent to mix with water but estimated instead. They didn’t follow the manufacturer’s instructions to ensure a strong enough solution to properly clean the instruments.
Medical Records and Labels
The times medications were given and the staff giving them weren’t recorded.
In a subsequent inspection, records were also incorrect.
Incidents
Before one woman’s procedure, a nurse noted no drug allergies. However, her later records showed that she was allergic to a Keflex. Fortunately, the woman didn’t suffer complications or a drug reaction, but the inconsistency in charts could’ve presented a risk.
Treatment of Patients
Single-use intravenous fluids were used on multiple patients.
Opened medications weren’t properly labeled and didn’t have expiration dates, leading to the use of expired medications on patients.
Hackett
Excerpts:
3. At all times relevant herein, the defendant, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England . . . was located in New Haven, Connecticut . . .
4. On June 4, 2015, [Plaintiff] was seen at Planned Parenthood . . .
5. On June 18, 2015, [Plaintiff] returned to Planned Parenthood and Defendant . . . inserted an intrauterine contraceptive device (hereinafter referred to as “IUC” or “IUD”), known as Liletta, to prevent pregnancy. . .
7. On March 7, 2016, [Plaintiff] was seen at Planned Parenthood by Defendant . . . for an IUD check. Medical records from this visit document that the patient is “Happy with IUD, no menses, occasional spotting.” Defendant . . . charted that she performed an examination of the female genitalia. Her notes of this examination include: “Cervix: no discharge per os or cervical motion tenderness and normal appearance and IUC string per os. Uterus: normal size and shape and mobile, non-tender, and no uterine prolapse” and “reassurance offered that IUD strings are correctly located and appropriate length.” . . .
8. On June 27, 2016, [Plaintiff] was seen at Planned Parenthood by Defendant . . . because she had been feeling sick and nauseous for a few months. [She] reported that she did a home pregnancy test which yielded a positive result. Defendant . . . documented that she performed an examination of the female genitalia. Her notes of this examination included: “Uterus: mobile, non-tender, normal shape, no uterine prolapse and enlarged (20 wk size).” An office pregnancy test rendered a positive result. And office ultrasound was performed and interpreted by Defendant . . . as “indeterminate for pregnancy location,” and questionable molar pregnancy. [Plaintiff] was sent to Hammers Imaging for a STAT ultrasound. The result was a “viable pregnancy of 31 weeks 3 days.” The estimated date of delivery was August 26, 2016 an no definite IUD was identified. . . .
11. Defendant . . . deviated from applicable standards of care in one or more of the following ways:
a. She failed to perform a full, thorough, internal examination . . . at the March 7, 2016 appointment and had she done so she would have determined that [Plaintiff] was approximately 14 weeks pregnant at that time . . .
Indeed.com Planned Parenthood Employee Reviews for New Haven, CT
CT New Haven Indeed 1
CT New Haven Indeed 2
CT New Haven Indeed 3
CT New Haven Indeed 4
CT New Haven Indeed 5
CT New Haven Google 1. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT New Haven Google 2. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT New Haven Google 3. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT New Haven Yelp 1
CT New Haven Yelp 2
CT New Haven Yelp 3
Norwich
Health Violation Document:
Highlights:
Clinic Conditions
Bags of soiled laundry, likely stained with bodily fluids, were stored in a post-anesthesia care area. Clinic staff admitted that the bags had been there for five days.
Instruments required to be sterile were stored in the dirty decontamination area, along with multiple boxes, supplies, and equipment.
The emergency light fixture in the staff bathroom wasn’t working, nor the emergency light fixture in the waiting area. This was a violation of the fire code.
Fire alarms and smoke detectors weren’t regularly tested.
Staff
Staff members didn’t have the proper medical credentials.
Medical Records and Labels
Sterilization logs were missing patient information. Instruments used on different women, therefore, weren’t tracked to maintain proper infection control.
Records for one patient failed to indicate that a comprehensive medical assessment was performed before surgery. Clinic staff claimed that one was performed but was not recorded due to a new computer system.
CT Norwich Google 1. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Norwich Google 2. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Norwich Yelp 1
Stamford
CT Stamford Google 1. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Stamford Google 2. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Stamford Google 3. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Stamford Google 4. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Stamford Google 5. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Stamford Google 6. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT Stamford Yelp 1
CT Stamford Yelp 2
CT Stamford Yelp 3
Torrington
Health Violation Document:
Highlights:
Clinic Conditions
According to the inspection report, “the facility staff failed to follow acceptable infection control practices.”
Medical Records and Labels
An open multi-use vial of medication wasn’t marked with the date it was opened or with the discard date. Another vial was missing the discard date. This meant that clinic staff didn’t know when to discard these vials and risked giving expired medicine to women.
CT Torrington Google 1. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT Torrington Yelp 1
Waterbury
Health Violation Document:
Highlights:
Medications and hepatitis vaccines were stored in the dirty utility room along with used, soiled instruments. This included an open, half-empty, multi-use vial of an injectable drug stored in a refrigerator. There was no documentation on the vial of when it was opened or when it should be discarded.
The medication refrigerator was located under the sink in the dirty utility room where dirty instruments were washed.
Blood samples were stored with medication in the refrigerator in the dirty utility room. According to the report, these blood samples “failed to be stored in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.”
West Hartford
Note: an ambulance call was documented in the health violation document, but we don’t have documentation on this outside that report. The 2020 report doesn’t include the date of the incident. We’ve marked it with an ambulance graphic in the highlights of the report. under Health Violations.
Article from the Journal Inquirer:
3 sentenced for holding teenage girl prisoner
(updated March 6, 2013)
In the year she was held captive by a West Hartford dog trainer . . Cramer endured the same treatment as the animals in his business: She was groomed and abused by someone she trusted, a prosecutor said Friday.
But when police found the girl locked away deep inside Adam Gault’s home last summer, they did more than rescue an abducted teenager.
They broke Gault’s cycle of preying on impressionable young females . . .
During the months Gault held Cramer captive, police say, he repeatedly abused and raped her, resulting in her pregnancy. He later ordered Cray to bring the girl to a Planned Parenthood clinic where, under a false identity, Cramer had an abortion.
Health Violation Documents:
Highlights:
Clinic Conditions
Test strips are included with each load of instruments sterilized in the autoclaves. One test strip indicated a load wasn’t properly sterilized. However, there was no indication in the records these instruments were subsequently sterilized again, as per proper procedure.
The facility had cloth-covered chairs in the recovery room. These chairs couldn’t be properly sterilized or cleaned.
A cloth pillow in the procedure room wasn’t cleaned between patients. The clinic failed to use disposable covers for the pillow and reused the same pillow.
The clinic failed to test and maintain fire alarms and sprinklers.
Staff
A staff member failed to wash her hands before preparing the procedure room for a patient.
Medical Records and Labels
Staff repeatedly failed to document whether test strips indicated instruments were properly sterilized. (See above)
Medical records were incomplete. The times medications were given weren’t documented, nor the names of the staff members giving medications.
There was a discrepancy in the records about the type of sedation one patient received. One set of records indicated she received intravenous moderate sedation but failed to mention the medication given. The other record indicated fentanyl and Versed were given.
In a later inspection, one patient’s records mistakenly identified the procedure she had – the procedure checked off in her informed consent paperwork wasn’t the one she received. This mistake could have jeopardized the integrity of the informed consent process.
This same patient had a complication that staff failed to document. The patient was taken to the hospital via ambulance, but documentation stated the procedure had no complications and the patient “tolerated the procedure well.”
Staff confirmed the paperwork was automatically filled out before the procedure took place and wasn’t changed to reflect what happened.
Incidents
A woman at the facility suffered a complication during a medical procedure and was sent to the hospital via ambulance. She was admitted for treatment. (See under documentation above.)
Treatment of Patients
IV fluids meant to be single-use were reused for multiple patients.
Other
The staff failed to conduct fire drills and emergency preparedness training.
The cabinet containing narcotics was left unlocked and unattended.
CT West Hartford Google 1. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT West Hartford Google 2. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT West Hartford Google 3. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT West Hartford Google 4. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT West Hartford Google 5. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT West Hartford Google 6. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT West Hartford Google 7. Accessed 04.27.21.
CT West Hartford Google 8. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT West Hartford Google 9. Accessed 02.17.22.
CT West Hartford Yelp 1
