By Liz Townsend

A woman seriously injured in a 2007 abortion at Metropolitan Medical Associates in Englewood, New Jersey, received almost $2 million as a settlement in a lawsuit against the clinic and doctors. The settlement, reached during the summer, compensates Rasheedah Dinkins for the massive hemorrhaging, coma, stroke, and hysterectomy she endured after a botched abortion, according to The Record.

Metropolitan Medical is one of the largest abortion clinics in the state, aborting more than 10,000 babies each year, and one of the few in New Jersey that does second-trimester abortions, according to The Record. Dinkins went there to abort her 15-week-old unborn baby January 27, 2007, the newspaper reported.

After the abortion, Dinkins began bleeding heavily. The abortionist had to call in another doctor to assist, The Record reported. Eventually, Dinkins was released and returned home but her condition worsened quickly.

Dinkins had "greater-than-expected bleeding, they couldn't stop it, they eventually took extraordinary measures to stop it, and then they sent her home," Dinkins's attorney Adam Slater told The Record. "They should have sent her to Englewood Hospital, which is less than a mile away, where they would have examined her and found she had a uterine rupture. They would have treated her, and she would have been fine. But the damage from her excessive bleeding led to catastrophic injuries."

Her mother called an ambulance, which took Dinkins to Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. The Record described the ordeal she went through as doctors worked feverishly to save her life: "doctors gave her transfusions and removed her damaged uterus. She suffered a stroke and her left lung collapsed from the severe blood loss. She needed a respirator and tracheotomy. Dinkins was in a coma for three weeks."

The medical center reported her injuries to state authorities. Investigating in February 2007, state officials discovered evidence of dirty conditions and questionable practices at the abortion clinic: "forceps encrusted in 'brownish blood-like residues,' rusty crochet hooks used to remove IUDs, and a quarter-inch of dark red 'dirt and debris' under an exam table," according to The Record.

The New Jersey health department closed Metropolitan Medical for a month after the inspection, but allowed it to reopen after the abortion mill submitted a "satisfactory" corrective plan, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

According to the New Jersey Law Journal, Dinkins will receive $1 million from the abortion clinic and $900,000 from the abortionists. Slater told The Record that she has made an "extremely good recovery."

Part One