CEO of nursing facility where a long-term comatose patient gave birth resigns

  • 09/01/2019

The chief executive office of the US health facility where a patient who had been in a vegetative state for 14 years gave birth has resigned, days after the news broke.

Bill Timmons, the CEO of Hacienda Healthcare, announced his resignation on Monday (local time), which was unanimously accepted by the board of directors.

The nursing facility has been under intense scrutiny after a 29-year-old patient gave birth in late December. The woman had been in a vegetative state for over a decade, and an inquiry into her alleged sexual assault has been launched by Phoenix police.

Gary Orman, the executive vice president of the company, told Arizona Family in a statement that the company "will accept nothing less than a full accounting of this absolutely horrifying situation".

He says that the birth was "an unprecedented case that has devastated everyone involved, from the victim and her family to Hacienda staff at every level of our organisation".

Mr Orman also confirmed that the facility is cooperating with police, and will do "everything in our power to ensure the safety of every single one of our patients and our employees".

However, other patient's families are concerned about the well-being of the people still inside the facility.

Karina Cesena told Arizona Family that "trust has been broken". Her 22-year-old daughter is a patient at Hacienda Skilled Nursing Facility. 

Her daughter had a traumatic brain injury and has hundreds of seizures daily - Ms Cesena says she is concerned for her daughters' safety, and is now staying in her room at the facility 24/7 until the culprit is caught.

Newshub.