Former Kentucky Abortion Practitioner Faces Wrongful Death Lawsuit 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 18, 2006
Louisville, KY (LifeNews.com) — A former abortion practitioner turned OBGYN has been hit with a wrongful death lawsuit from a couple who says he did not provide emergency care for their newborn and his negligence resulted in the baby’s death. Ronachai Banchongmanie faced numerous botched abortion lawsuits before he stopped doing abortions and this is his second wrongful death suit since then.
Danielle Warfield and Curtis Wickliffe filed a suit in Jefferson Circuit Court earlier this month that seeks unspecified damages.
The couple alleges that Banchongmanie delivered their baby girl at Norton Hospital using "vacuum extractions," according to a Louisville Courier-Journal news report.
The lawsuit says the baby was pale and had rapid respiration, but instead of providing her with emergency care and medical attention, Banchongmanie sent the baby to the newborn nursery.
The baby died a day later and the lawsuit claims Banchongmanie "failed to exercise the degree of skill and care expected of a reasonably competent physician."
Another wrongful death lawsuit filed against Banchongmanie in 2004 from the death of a baby in 2003 is still pending, the Louisville newspaper reports.
In that lawsuit, Marilyn Brooks sued Banchongmanie after she went to him and complained of intense pain during her pregnancy. He told her there was no problem, but she returned later still having the pain.
Brooks eventually went into premature labor, the newspaper reported and gave birth to a baby girl who died shortly thereafter.
Banchongmanie was the subject of numerous lawsuits while he was an abortion practitioner in the 1990s. He stopped doing abortions in 1999.
In 1998, a court ordered him to pay a woman $21,000 regarding a botched abortion he did in 1991. He escaped jail time or fines in two other botched abortion cases.
