Ex-doctor enters plea in abortion fatality
Cape woman died during abortion
BARNSTABLE - A former Cape Cod doctor indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter after a woman he performed an abortion on died has pleaded not guilty.
Rapin Osathanondh was arraigned yesterday in Barnstable Superior Court and released on personal recognizance after surrendering his passport.
Osathanondh, 65, was indicted last week in the death of Laura Hope Smith, 22, of Sandwich.
Prosecutors say Smith's heart stopped last September while she was under anesthesia at Osathanondh's Hyannis office. They allege willful, reckless conduct by the former doctor.
Smith's mother has alleged in a lawsuit that Osathanondh did not properly monitor her daughter.
Osathanondh's lawyer has said that Smith's death was a tragedy but that Osathanondh was not at fault. Prosecutors have alleged that he failed to monitor Smith at Women's Health Center in Hyannis. After Osathanondh was indicted last week, prosecutors alleged that he delayed trying to resuscitate Smith, and then lied about his actions and the equipment he had available after the state began investigating.
Michael O'Keefe, district attorney for the Cape and Islands, said last week that the indictment was made after an investigation by Barnstable police, State Police, and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine found Osathanondh's conduct to be "willful, wanton, and reckless."
"Suffice it to say, there was an inattention to the kinds of procedures of a lifesaving nature that one would expect in a place where an operation with anesthesia is being performed," O'Keefe said then. "There was nobody monitoring her, long enough to result in her death. There were a number of other shortcomings."
Osathanondh resigned his medical license in February after the medical board accused him of misconduct, and he was permanently barred from practicing medicine in Massachusetts.
Compiled from staff and wire reports. 