Woman:Botched abortion nearly killed me

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) - A woman who says she was a former patient of Dr. Robert Alexander told Target 8 she nearly bled to death six months after he performed a botched abortion on her.

She reached out to Target 8 after learning about allegations of other failed abortions.

"It just really hit home," said the 30-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified. "I wanted to make sure that something was done about it, and make sure he doesn't hurt anybody else again."

She is among five former patients of Alexander who have told Target 8 about alleged botched abortions or medical complications following abortions they underwent at his clinic in Muskegon.

Two of the women were identified in court records; the others reached out to Target 8.

The woman says she was single, living in the Muskegon area and already had three children, when she learned she was pregnant in late 2008. The father, she says, was headed to prison.

"If I did have a child with him, that would put him in my life forever," she said.

She says Dr. Alexander charged $400 -- half of what others were asking.

"I just remember being in a lot of pain, and asking him why was this going on because he assured me it
wouldn't be painful," she said

After the procedure, she said, she went to use the clinic's bathroom.

"I remember seeing blood all over the restroom, including on the toilet seat," she said. "There was blood
everywhere. It wasn't from me; it was there as soon as I walked in, and I just thought, I cannot sit down."

Six months later, with a new boyfriend and after off-and-on hemorrhaging, she started bleeding badly.

"If my boyfriend hadn't woken me up that night, I just feel like I could have bled to death in my sleep."

She said an ambulance rushed her to Butterworth Hospital, where doctors gave her two blood tranfusions and an emergency D&C.

Alexander, she said, hadn't removed all of the fetus.

"They told me that there were pieces and tissue that had never been removed, that my body had been trying to get rid of," she said.

This was about the same time a Muskegon OB/GYN filed a complaint with the state against Alexander, alleging botched abortions on two other women.

A Target 8 investigation revealed how the then-chairman of the state Board of Medicine, Dr. George Shade Jr., closed out that complaint without an investigation -- despite his past professional relationship with Alexander.

Shade helped with Alexander's transition back to medicine after Alexander had served federal prison time for selling illegal prescriptions.

Shade, now chief medical officer at an Indianapolis hospital, has told Target 8 he handled the investigation properly.

Alexander, who previously told Target 8 that his Muskegon clinic was "pristine," could not be reached for
comment. He said he is not re-opening the clinic.

"We're supposed to trust these people," the woman said. "And, if they're going to do something like this,
then the whole process would need to be looked into, so that something like this doesn't happen again."

The woman has since re-married. Months after the abortion, she said, she and her new husband got pregnant, but she had a miscarriage at five months. She still wonders if the abortion somehow led to that.

They have since had a son, who is now 2.

She says she reached out to Target 8 to protect women.

"He probably felt he could get away with it because most people don't want to talk about it, but there's got to be a point where you have to be strong," she said. "People need to stand up and fight back against this man."