Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Cleveland Nursing Home Injury Lawyer: The Tragic Case of the Comatose Arizona Patient Who Gave Birth

It’s a story that shocked the country, but it demonstrates how sexual assault is all too commonplace. Our nursing home injury lawyers in Cleveland deal with these kind of issues on a regular basis.

A woman in a vegetative state gave birth. Nursing home staff didn’t even realize she was pregnant. They found the baby suddenly born from a woman who’d been comatose since she was a toddler, fighting for its life.

Last January, police arrested the woman’s suspected rapist Nathan Sutherland, 36, who had worked as a nurse at the facility — Hacienda HealthCare.

DNA Match

Police reportedly collected a DNA sample from Sutherland which matched that of the child, a boy who was born on December 29th.

“Through a combination of good old-fashioned police work, combing through evidence, talking to people and following up on information, combined with the marvels of DNA technology, we were able to identify and develop probable cause to arrest a suspect,” Jeri L. Williams, the Police Department’s chief, said at a news conference.

Sutherland was a focus of the investigation because he was among the medical staff members at the nursing home assigned to care for the woman around the time authorities believe she was raped.

The Nursing Home Responds

The center issued a statement apologizing for the rape.

“Every member of the Hacienda organization is troubled beyond words to think that a licensed practical nurse could be capable of seriously harming a patient,” company officials said in a statement. “Once again, we offer an apology and send our deepest sympathies to the client and her family, to the community and to our agency partners at every level.”