Upon learning a patient gave birth after more than a decade in a vegetative state, parents who have children at the same facility are concerned about the safety of their loved ones.
The Phoenix Police Department launched a sexual assault investigation after a woman at the Hacienda HealthCare facility in Arizona gave birth to a baby boy on Dec. 29, 2018.
The probe wasn’t launched until after the birth because staff at the facility claimed to be unaware that the woman was pregnant.
“None of the staff were aware that she was pregnant until she was pretty much giving birth,” a source told AZFamily, adding that it wasn’t known until the woman started moaning.
Karina Cesena, a mother of a 22-year-old patient, was horrified by what had happened at the place where her daughter had spent the past several years.
“Trust has been broken,” Karina Cesena said Saturday to AZFamily. “Trust has definitely been broken.”
After sustaining a traumatic brain injury, Cesena’s daughter spent the past few years residing at the Hacienda Skilled Nursing Facility. The daughter has several hundreds of seizures per day.
Cesena is now staying with her daughter around the clock until the suspect is found.
“I do not [know if my daughter was victimized], but I do ask her, and she can answer yes or no,” Cesena said. “She is not able to walk or talk yet, but she does understand.”
Although Cesena doesn’t believe her daughter suffered sexual abuse, she also said the staff at the facility refused to tell her what’s been happening.
The woman who gave birth has been in a vegetative state for 14 years. Because of the possible sexual abuse, the facility has reportedly implemented a policy requiring any male staff that enters a woman’s room must be accompanied by female staff.
Despite the implementation, Cesena hopes to move her daughter to another facility. Cesena and other parents who have children at the facility, couldn’t imagine something like this happening.
“We don’t understand why something of this magnitude could happen, and then now everybody wants to be quiet about it,” Cesena said.
Cesena is not the only mother who wants to pull her child from the facility. Another parent, Angela Gomez, also expressed her wish to move her son to a different facility.
Woman in vegetative state gives birth at Hacienda Healthcare in #Phoenix; sex abuse investigation underwayhttps://t.co/fkIdDRXNCL pic.twitter.com/KNFLCTJ6fY
— azfamily 3TV CBS 5 (@azfamily) January 4, 2019
“My heart hurts, my chest hurts, I haven’t been able to sleep good at night because of what occurred here,” said Gomez to AZFamily.
Gomez is very concerned for her son, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, a terminal illness.
“I’m concerned that what occurred with this woman could very well occur with my son,” Gomez said.
Despite more security measures being implemented after the birth of the child, Gomez hasn’t changed her mind about moving her son away from the facility. However, doing so may be easier said than done.
“My options are very limited, there’s not a lot of facilities that will take people who are on ventilators,” said Gomez.
For now, Gomez is keeping a close eye on her son, who is still residing at the facility.
Hacienda HealthCare spokeswoman Nancy Salmon declined to comment on the case, citing privacy laws and the ongoing investigation in a statement released on Friday, Jan. 4.
“We have recently become aware of a deeply disturbing incident involving the health and safety of a Hacienda resident. While federal and state privacy laws prohibit us from publicly discussing a patient’s health or case, Hacienda has and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement and all the relevant regulatory agencies regarding this matter,” the statement reads.
Security Measures
The incident also highlighted the lack of security measures at the facility. Parents told AZFamily that the investigation into the woman giving birth may be hindered by the lack of camera footage.
After the incident, monitors were installed in the hallways and people were given badges, according to Gomez.
Gary Londer, a father of a patient at the facility, also added his own extra layer of security. Londer said on Monday that he’s installing a Wi-Fi camera of his own to watch over his son.
“I’m going to hook it up in a room and put on the door that this room is under video surveillance,” Londer said.
In addition to extra video surveillance, the facility has also hired extra security to patrol the grounds, according to Cesena and Londer. Before the incident, there was one security guard at the facility during the evening hours.
According to the facility’s website, the business is “Arizona’s leading provider of specialized health care services for medically fragile and chronically ill infants, children, teens, and young adults as well as those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”
Hacienda HealthCare is the organizational “umbrella” for several Phoenix-based health care programs and services for infants, children, teens, and adults, the website states.
NTD reporter Zack Stieber contributed to this report.
