JUNE

Ozzie Chavez brought with her everything she needed to deliver her daughter Amy at Northridge Hospital Medical Center: clothing, diaper bag, even credit cards and a checkbook to pay for unforeseen expenses. But when the time came in the complicated birth for Chavez to receive the pain relief that her doctor had ordered, the anesthesiologist refused to administer it--unless Chavez paid $400 in cash. She didn’t have it. A Times investigation last spring uncovered not only the ordeal suffered by Chavez, but also the experiences of dozens of other women forced to pay cash or forgo anesthesia at Northridge and other hospitals. In the wake of the stories, the Legislature made it illegal for doctors to withhold pain relief from women in childbirth on the basis of their inability to pay for it.