A former Arizona county attorney will lead an internal investigation intoHacienda HealthCarein Phoenix, which operates a nursing facility where a female patient in along-term vegetative state gave birth to a childlast month.
“We’ve got a number of patients, some of the most vulnerable in our society,” said Romley. “They need to be taken care of and there needs to be assurances…that this organization is going to do everything that it takes to correct the horrendous facts that led up to the impregnation of the young woman.”
Jacques Billeaud/AP/REX/Shutterstock
According to the documents, she “lacks sufficient understanding and mental capacity to make decisions or give consents for her medical, placement or financial estate” and suffers from quadriplegia, recurrent pneumonia and a seizure disorder.
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Phoenix police have launched acriminal investigationinto the sexual assault but have not made any arrests in the case.
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Romley says his probe will be exhaustive and plans to make his findings public.
“I’ll be looking at their safety audits,” he says. “I’ll be looking at complaints. I’ll be looking at the protocols. All of that’s open. They have given me absolutely assurances that the books are open to me.”
Romley’s review, he says, will also include interviews with the staff doctors.
“We all understand what the questions are,” he says. “We all understand how could this have not been identified earlier? What happened here? All of those things I’m going to try to ferret out.”
Asked if he thought the possible assailant would be identified, Romley responded: “I cannot give you that. I know this is kind of the ultimate detective story of whodunnit, I just hope and pray, quite frankly ’cause, quite frankly, the person’s a little sick.”
source: people.com
