@capecodonline.com
September 14, 2010
BARNSTABLE — On the third anniversary of her death, the doctor who performed an abortion on Laura Hope Smith admitted that his actions led to her death while she was under his care. Yesterday in Barnstable Superior Court, with Smith's parents looking on, Dr. Rapin Osathanondh, 67, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Smith, 22, never awoke after undergoing the procedure at the Women's Health Center in Hyannis on Sept. 13, 2007. The guilty plea followed an agreement between Cape and Islands First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny and defense attorneys Paul Cirel and Serina Barkley of Boston. For several hours yesterday, the lawyers negotiated back and forth, going to and from the chambers of Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson with reports of their progress.
Throughout the day Glenny frequently stopped to discuss matters with Smith's parents, Tom and Eileen Smith. At the same time, Cirel and Barkley took their client aside to privately discuss offers on the table. Osathanondh faced a possible 20 years in state prison. But the recommended sentence, endorsed by prosecutor and defense, calls for less time in jail. He is scheduled to be sentenced today in Superior Court. If Nickerson approves that sentence — and there was nothing yesterday to suggest the judge would not — Osathanondh will serve three months in a county jail, nine months under home confinement with an electronic monitoring device, and three years of probation. Additionally, under the terms of this plea agreement, he must not practice medicine, nor teach.
Osathanondh was allowed 24 hours between pleading guilty and being sentenced in order to make arrangements for settling the civil suit in that case. An agreement in the civil case was also reached yesterday, according to the attorneys. Smith's mother filed the suit in Barnstable Superior Court not long after her daughter's death. The terms of the civil suit settlement were not released yesterday. Osathanondh, who resigned his license to practice medicine in 2008, spoke in a soft voice, admitting his guilt after he heard Nickerson recite the definition of involuntary manslaughter as a "wanton or reckless act," or "failure to act" in such a way that it creates "a grave risk to others."
Smith, who was born in Honduras, was raised and educated on Cape Cod following her adoption by Tom and Eileen Smith. She had studied cosmetology at the Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School and was 13 weeks pregnant when she went to the clinic to terminate her pregnancy. Osathanondh, an obstetrician and a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health, was accused of failing to monitor Smith while she was under anesthesia and failing to call 911 in a timely fashion when he could not rouse her after the procedure.
Additionally, following their own investigation, the state board of medicine found Osathanondh lied repeatedly to his staff about the incident, telling them he gave Smith oxygen, monitored her pulse and claimed he and his assistant were certified in advanced cardiac life support.
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