that his abortions were done purely for medical reasons. After Roe After Roe vs. Wade, Vuitch ran into trouble in his abortion practice, leading to numerous malpractice suits and public disgrace. In 1984, WDVM-TV, Washington, D.C. won the Peabody Award for its investigation of Vuitch. The investigation found that Vuitch's practice had been cited for a multitude of violations, such as in 1980 for dirty instruments and lab specimens being refrigerated with food; in 1981 for taking patients to Vuitch's home overnight and having expired drugs; in 1982 for unlicensed drug distribution and mixing dirty and clean surgical instruments and for a patient sent home though she was passing red urine and had a catheter still inside her body; in 1983 for having anesthetic drugs "not freshly prepared and yellowish in color". The investigator also noted that despite these violations, the city kept renewing the clinic's license until 1982, after which Vuitch just operated without one. The story, by Mark Feldstein, noted a patient who said that Vuitch had operated on her without anesthesia. Feldstein also reported on a 17-year-old patient who had been sent home with instructions to return with $400 before Vuitch would complete her abortion. Though Vuitch had told her not to go to a hospital, she was taken to an emergency room after she collapsed. She gave birth to a live premature baby, of six months gestation, who subsequently died. Feldstein also provided a female co-worker with a vial of his own urine. She took the specimen to Vuitch's clinic, where staff told her she was pregnant and offered an abortion. Vuitch did little to help his public image when he said on-camera, "This is not the only lacerated uterus in 15 years. I lacerated uteruses and other surgeons lacerated. And perforated. And this and that." One lawsuit came from the family of a 32-year-old abortion patient who died in his unlicensed clinic. Vuitch died at age 78 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD after suffering a stroke. References 1915 births 1993 deaths American abortion providers Yugoslav emigrants to the United States People from Washington, D.C. People from Silver Spring, Maryland American people of Serbian descent Budapest University alumni