- Nevaeh Crain was six months pregnant when she developed sepsis while suffering a miscarriage
- The 18-year-old went to the emergency room three times with severe symptoms, and doctors had to “confirm fetal demise” before intervening
- She died hours later in the intensive care unit
A Texas teen died after the state’s ban on abortion stopped her from getting life-saving medical care while experiencing pregnancy complications.
On October 28, 2023, the day of her baby shower, Nevaeh Crain woke up with a headache. Shortly after, the 18-year-old, who was six months pregnant, developed a fever followed by nausea and vomiting. She struggled through her baby shower and by 3 p.m. her family decided to take her to the emergency room, ProPublica reports.
Crain’s boyfriend Randall Broussard drove her to a nearby hospital where they sat in the waiting room for four hours. Staff reportedly gave her a plastic pan as she continued to vomit while waiting.
After testing, Crain was diagnosed with strep throat. The teen was also experiencing abdominal pain, in addition to vomiting, but her pregnancy was not evaluated. She was discharged and prescribed antibiotics.
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In the middle of the night, Crain woke up her mother, Candace Fails, complaining of intense stomach pains, according to the outlet. Fails drove her daughter to a different hospital, where an OB-GYN reported that she had a fever of 102.8 and a high pulse. She was showing signs of sepsis.
Sepsis is “a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection,” according to the Mayo Clinic. It can lead to septic shock and death. In a typical year, at least 1.7 million adults in the U.S. develop sepsis, and nearly 270,000 die from the infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Crain was given IV fluids and antibiotics for two hours, but her condition continued to decline. In addition to strep, she also had a urinary tract infection. However, a nurse checked that her baby had a heartbeat so she was free to be discharged from the hospital with more antibiotics.
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“It’s bulls—,” Fails said, per the outlet, as Crain had to be taken home in a wheelchair because she was unable to walk.
The following morning, Crain cried in pain to her family, and by 9 a.m. she was back at the hospital after she started experiencing heavy bleeding. She was suffering a miscarriage.
Medical staff started Crain on IV antibiotics and the OB-GYN on duty also reported that she couldn’t find a fetal heartbeat at the time. Fails told the outlet that a half hour later, she noticed her daughter’s thighs were covered in blood.
“Do something,” Fails pleaded with doctors.
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The near-total ban on abortion in Texas meant that the doctors couldn’t do anything to remove the unviable fetus unless Crain’s life was at risk. She would either have to get sick enough for doctors to intervene, or miscarry on her own.
“Pretty consistently, people say, ‘Until we can be absolutely certain this isn’t a normal pregnancy, we can’t do anything, because it could be alleged that we were doing an abortion,’” Dr. Tony Ogburn, an OB-GYN in San Antonio, told ProPublica.
Eventually, doctors performed a second ultrasound to “confirm fetal demise” more than two hours after Crain arrived at the hospital. At that point, Crain was unable to sign consent forms due to “extreme pain,” so Fails quickly signed a release to allow her daughter to undergo an “unplanned dilation and curettage” or “unplanned cesarean section.”
However, doctors decided it was now too dangerous to perform the procedure, according to medical records obtained by the outlet. They suspected that she was bleeding internally after developing a dangerous complication of sepsis called disseminated intravascular coagulation.
Fails recalled her daughter sitting up in the hospital bed as black blood ran from her mouth and nostrils, telling her, “You’re strong, Nevaeh. God made us strong.”
Crain died hours later in the intensive care unit.
ProPublica reviewed more than 800 pages of Crain’s medical records and consulted with medical experts, who said that if the teen received proper care she might have survived.
Since her death, Fails has sought legal action to hold the hospitals accountable. However, according to Texas law emergency care cases require plaintiffs to prove “willful and wanton negligence” by hospitals, and she has reportedly been unable to find an attorney to take her case.
