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Phoenix Nursing Facility CEO Resigns After Patient In Vegetative State Gives Birth
The CEO of Hacienda Health Care, the nursing facility where a woman in a vegetative state gave birth to a baby boy, resigned Monday as new allegations of abuse surfaced.
Bill Timmons' resignation was unanimously accepted by Hacienda's board of directors, reported CBS News.
At the end of December, the 29-year-old Native American, who has been in a vegetative state for 14 years, went into labor. The Arizona facility then opened an investigation and learned the patient was raped several times.
In a statement, Hacienda said Board Executive Vice President Gary Orman vowed that Hacienda "will accept nothing less than a full accounting of this absolutely horrifying situation, an unprecedented case that has devastated everyone involved, from the victim and her family to Hacienda staff at every level of our organization."
Orman added that Hacienda "will continue to cooperate with Phoenix Police and the investigating agencies at all levels in every way possible."
According to a former Hacienda manager, Timmons pushed for the cover-up of a 1988 incident of abuse on a different patient.
In that incident, said the manager, a group of female nurses stood around the bed of a nonverbal male patient and talked inappropriately about his genitalia. The ex-manager said when the incident was discussed at a meeting, Timmons slammed his fist on a table and said, “No! No one is going to report this.”
"I was scared," the former manager told CBS affiliate KPHO. "Bill Timmons has a temper. And we knew not to mess with that temper because people got fired."
She said no one reported that incident, and she believes there has been other abuse throughout the years.
Right now, an Arizona state lawmaker is considering legislation to protect patients living at long-term health-care facilities. Rep. Jeff Weninger told KPHO-TV he’s considering an idea that would allow families to install cameras in the rooms of their loved ones so they could be monitored remotely.
