PA Abortion Trial: Clerk Gave Anesthesia

(AP) – A woman trained only as a medical assistant says she gave anesthesia and changed dosages when she worked at a Philadelphia abortion clinic.

Latosha Lewis is among the final prosecution witnesses at the five-week murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell.

Gosnell is charged in the 2009 overdose death of a female patient, and in the deaths of seven babies allegedly born alive.

Lewis says she sometimes cut the usual dose of anesthesia and painkillers after seeing patients she feared would not awake from sedation.

She stopped assisting with abortions by 2008 but still gave out medications as a clerk.

The 31-year-old Lewis has pleaded guilty to related drug charges and awaits sentencing.

Gosnell’s lawyer says there were no live births at the clinic and argues the woman died of unforeseen complications.