Woman in Vegetative State Who Gave Birth What Will Happen to the Baby Boy
(CNN)A 36-year-one-time nurse has been arrested on suspicion of impregnating a woman in a vegetative country who unexpectedly gave birth final month at a Phoenix health intendance facility, constabulary said Wed.
Nathan Sutherland, a licensed applied nurse who was caring for the woman at the Hacienda HealthCare facility, has been charged with i count of sexual attack and one count of vulnerable adult corruption, according to courtroom documents from Maricopa County Superior Court.
A court gild compelled Sutherland to provide a DNA sample to investigators on Tuesday, and crime lab technicians adamant his Deoxyribonucleic acid "matched the baby," Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said. Sutherland was arrested on Tuesday.
A approximate set a cash bail at $500,000 and scheduled Sutherland'south next court appearance for January 30. The nurse is being held in the Maricopa Canton Jail.
Sutherland has "invoked his Fifth Amendment rights" and has non participated in an interview with police, Thompson said.
The abort is the latest chapter in a weekslong investigation that started when the 29-year-one-time woman -- who is not able to give consent and has been at the facility since 2002 -- gave birth in tardily December.
Investigators are trying to determine whether he assaulted anyone else, or whether this woman was assaulted more than in one case, Thompson said.
"We owed this arrest to the victim. We owed this arrest to the newest member of our community -- that innocent baby," Phoenix police Chief Jeri Williams said at a news conference Wednesday.
The adult female's family is enlightened of Sutherland'south abort merely declines to comment further, said their attorney, John Micheaels.
Hacienda HealthCare said every member of the company is "troubled beyond words to think that a ... nurse could be capable of seriously harming a patient."
The arrest came two days after the facility announced, without elaboration, that 1 md who led the woman's care resigned, and another was suspended. The company did not name the doctors, and police did not mention them at their news conference.
'We had no thought she was pregnant'
Caretakers of the woman were surprised past the December 29 birth, with i telling a 911 dispatcher, "We had no thought she was significant." The woman is a fellow member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and has long been in a vegetative state, the tribe'south chairman has said.
"The babe, I am told, is doing quite well," Thompson said, without elaborating on who is taking intendance of the babe.
Police began investigating the case as a sexual assault considering the woman cannot give consent. Hacienda was ordered to hire a tertiary-political party manager to oversee several of its facilities.
Investigators obtained search warrants for records that helped them identify people who had access to the woman, as well as court orders to get Dna evidence from men who worked at the facility, constabulary said.
Detectives learned that Sutherland was amid those responsible for caring for the woman "during the time this sexual assault occurred," leading to the courtroom guild compelling him to provide a DNA sample, Thompson said.
At Sutherland's initial courtroom appearance, Cohen explained the prosecution'southward decision to seek the significant greenbacks bond.
"The charges in this instance are very serious, the defendant sexually assaulted a very vulnerable adult who had no capacity to resist, no capacity to cry out, no capacity to practise anything other than to be subject area to what the defendant did to her," Cohen said.
Sutherland attorney David Gregan asked for a much lower bond, saying there was "no direct evidence that Mr. Sutherland has committed these acts," and that he anticipated that Sutherland's defense would include his own Deoxyribonucleic acid expert.
Sutherland, wearing a dark shirt and jacket, said null other than his name and date of birth.
If he posts bail, Sutherland must be under firm abort and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet while awaiting trial, a judge said.
Sutherland has as well been ordered to stay abroad from the Hacienda HealthCare facility and cannot contact the victim or any witnesses involved in the case, co-ordinate to the courtroom documents.
Chairman Terry Rambler of the San Carlos Apache Tribe said the tribe "hopes that justice will be served to the maximum extent allowed under the police force."
Nicole Capone, a spokeswoman for Arizona Department of Health Services, said the agency's requirement for additional safe measures remains in place, including increased staff presence during interactions with patients and more monitoring of patient intendance areas.
Hacienda HealthCare offers apology
"One time again, we offer an apology and send our deepest sympathies to the client and her family, to the customs and to our bureau partners at every level," the company said in a statement Wednesday.
Sutherland had worked at the facility since 2012, Hacienda HealthCare said Wednesday. Thompson had previously said Sutherland had worked at the facility since 2011.
Sutherland, who had a current nursing license and had undergone an all-encompassing groundwork cheque before he was hired, was fired immediately Wednesday morning after the company learned of his arrest. His concluding shift was on Sunday, the company said.
"Nosotros volition practice everything in our power to ensure justice in this case," the statement said, calculation that Hacienda had been cooperating with investigators.
"In the past ii weeks, the Hacienda team has increased security measures to ensure the safety of all our patients. We will continue to exercise then. We also will keep to review and improve what is already an in-depth vetting process for caregivers at Hacienda. Nosotros will not tolerate whatever mistreatment of a Hacienda patient, nor will we terminate until every Hacienda patient is as safety every bit we can make them."
Family unit says woman is not in a coma
CNN is not reporting the woman's proper name because police are investigating the case as a sexual assault.
The woman'south parents said in a statement Tuesday that she has "significant intellectual disabilities" but is able to move and respond to sound.
"The victim's parents would like to brand clear that their girl is not in a coma," said the statement released to CNN by the attorney for the parents. "She has pregnant intellectual disabilities as a consequence of seizures very early in her childhood."
The adult female does not speak but has some ability to move her limbs, head and neck. She also "responds to sound and is able to make facial gestures."
"She has feelings, likes to be read to, enjoys soft music and is capable of responding to people she is familiar with, especially family unit," the parents said.
"The important thing is that she is a beloved daughter, albeit with significant intellectual disabilities."
Adult female has breathing and feeding tubes
A doc who gave a yearly checkup to the patient virtually 37 weeks before she gave birth wrote that there were no major changes in her health, according to medical records sent to an Arizona courtroom.
Medical records say the woman had an external exam Apr 16. A dr. noted her "firm belly" in the abdomen section. At that place were no notes on the forms about a pelvic exam, or urine or claret tests.
The doctor had given the adult female her physicals since 2009 when a court appointed her female parent as legal guardian.
The woman has breathing and feeding tubes, the records show. In March, she weighed 112 pounds.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/23/health/arizona-woman-birth-vegetative-state/index.html
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