Sexual Abuse Case Analysis

Sexual Abuse Case Analysis
Assault and sexual abuse cases severely violate the patients’ rights by their healthcare providers. They comprise heinous crimes that occur in healthcare practices. The U.S. healthcare system suffers a significant prevalence of these types of crimes, as Innes (2021) reported in her news article. The writer indicates that the violations have raised the alarm and continue to rock the sector despite the presence of regulations protecting patients at the state and federal levels. As a result, this paper discusses a famous rape case involving a vegetative patient in Hacienda healthcare, Phenix, Arizona, to determine the current state of protection, ethical responsibilities of the healthcare professionals, and the impact of the abuse on equity and access to healthcare for females.
Case Overview
In January 2019, the American news headlines highlighted the case of a vegetative woman raped and impregnated in an Arizona healthcare facility. They cited the Hacienda facility where this assault occurred, leading to out-of-court settlements and other lawsuits from the victim’s family members (Innes, 2021). Claims reveal that the woman had suffered multiple rape incidences perpetrated by Nathan Sutherland, a licensed nurse tasked with caring for the patient. Prosecutors accused the suspect through collected DNA evidence to prove that he was culpable for the crimes considering the victim was in a vegetative state and could not provide sexual consent (Innes, 2021). The most concerning aspect was that the other primary care physicians also failed to diagnose the woman’s condition early, indicating an extreme case of negligence or malpractices while caring for such a critical care patient. As a result, she carried the pregnancy to term without the appropriate care despite her vulnerable status (Innes, 2021). These aspects illustrate the poor healthcare services provided by the facility to its patients, worsening their risks.
The lawsuit accused Dr. Phillip Gear of gross negligence in performing his primary mandate of monitoring, supervising, and routinely assessing operations in the facility. It also accused Nathan Sutherland of rape. However, it did not name the healthcare facility, Hacienda, as one of the defendants. Innes (2021) indicates that the victim’s family had settled with the institution out of court for an undisclosed amount. Additional evidence suggests that another doctor responsible for caring for the patient, Thanh Nguyen, also agreed with the family and the victim confidentially and did not receive further punishment from the medical board. It also voted to suspend Gear’s license pending a hearing, but the accused decided to retire at age 67 to avoid legal proceedings. As the case against Sutherland continued, the court approved a settlement worth $15 million between Dr. Gear and the family on June 10, 2021 (Innes, 2021). Since then, the victim’s family has cared for the child while the mother moved to another facility in Arizona.
Current State of Protections for Victims and Penalties for Perpetrators
The state report card indicates that Arizona has adequate measures for protecting its victims and incorporates sizeable penalties despite th...