Well, here's more trouble to add to the list.
A former Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn patient filed a lawsuit against the hospital last week. The 22-year old partially paralyzed stroke victim says she was raped by a Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn employee in in 2007 -- and rather than report the assault, hospital officials decided to cover it up.
Because she was paralyzed on the right side of her body and rendered speechless by the stroke, the victim says she was unable to cry out or fight while a temporary nursing employee sexually assaulted her for 15-20 minutes.
You would think the hospital would immediately contact police upon hearing such an accusation. But, according to the victim, the hospital not only failed to report the alleged assault to the cops, the nurse manager, associate vice president of nursing, and senior vice president of the hospital "issued an order that the Scottsdale police were not to be called."
Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn spokesman Keith Jones tells another story: the victim insisted that staff not file a report, then changed her mind later. The three hospital staff members she accuses of delaying the report were charged with "failure to report in a timely matter" and convicted of the misdemeanor, Jones says, but the convictions were later overturned in Superior Court.
Jones also questions whether a rape actually took place.
"She was in an ICU, and a hospital ICU is a very open place," says Jones. "Lights are on, and patients are visible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it's unlikely that a patient would be in a position for something of that nature to have taken place."
The victim is suing Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn in Superior Court for punitive damages, medical expenses, and attorney's fees. She's also suing the company that manufactures the Nuvaring. She believes that use of the birth-control device was responsible for her stroke, according to Courtroom News Service.
