A disabled man was killed when a palm tree fell on him while walking with his carer from the infamous center where a nurse raped and impregnated a patient without the knowledge of staff a few years ago.
Ryne Zehner, 29, was killed when a palm tree struck him at Highline Park in Phoenix, Arizona, as wind gusts in the area reached up to 45 miles per hour on Thursday.
The victim’s family confirmed that he lived at Hacienda Healthcare, a facility previously known for a disturbing incident in which a male nurse raped and impregnated a woman in a vegetative state a few years ago.
When emergency services arrived on the scene on Thursday to cut down the tree to free Zehner, he had already died. His caregiver was not injured.
Ryne Zehner, 29, lost his life when a palm tree fell on him while walking with his caregiver from the infamous center where a nurse raped and impregnated a patient without the staff’s knowledge a few years ago
He was killed when a palm tree struck him at Highline Park in Phoenix, Arizona, as wind gusts in the area reached up to 45 miles per hour on Thursday.
The victim had been a patient at Hacienda Healthcare in Phoenix for 26 years. Her medical conditions stem from a brain disorder that caused motor and cognitive impairment and vision loss
Bill Coates, a witness who visits the park, expressed his condolences in an interview with the local station Family AZand said, “It’s sad that this is someone we see here every day.”
Coates said his recent article for a local newspaper was about interactions with people in the park.
The care center said in a statement that Zehner’s death was the result of an “incomprehensible accident.”
“This incomprehensible accident has left all of us at Hacienda mourning such a tragic loss. Ryne was a unique individual and someone we loved very much. Our thoughts go out to Ryne’s family and all who loved him,” they wrote.
Hacienda Healthcare came under fire in 2019 after a harrowing incident in which a woman gave birth in a prolonged vegetative state at an Arizona nursing home after being raped by a nurse.
Hacienda Healthcare came under scrutiny in 2019 after a woman gave birth in a prolonged vegetative state at an Arizona nursing home after being sexually assaulted by a nurse.
The harrowing incident in 2018 caused global outrage, but bodycam footage was only shared by police in December last year following a freedom of information request.
Hacienda Healthcare came under scrutiny in 2019 after a woman gave birth in a prolonged vegetative state at an Arizona nursing home after being sexually assaulted by a nurse
The harrowing incident in 2018 caused global outrage, but bodycam footage was only shared by police in December last year following a freedom of information request
Another staff member said it wasn’t until she was changing the victim’s diaper that she noticed a baby was on the way.
The staff at Hacienda Healthcare in Phoenix seemed completely bewildered; many were in tears after the birth, as the entire pregnancy had come as a complete surprise.
The footage also shows police in the room with the victim – although it is very pixelated and neither she nor her newborn baby are visible.
“And when I looked, it was *inaudible*. The baby is coming,” a nurse in distress is heard telling an officer as she tearfully recounts the moment of the birth and how she saw a baby’s head sticking out as she changed the victim’s adult diaper .
“When she opened the diaper, there was a head inside. And that poor assistant didn’t work for a month. She was so distraught, so traumatized by the whole thing,” a former employee said AZFamily.
The woman, who was 29 at the time of the rape, has been severely disabled for most of her life (since the age of three) and has been in a coma for most of her life, meaning she was incapable of consenting with sex. .
She had lived at Hacienda for 26 years, until the child’s birth. Her medical conditions stem from a brain disorder that caused motor and cognitive impairment and vision loss. She also had no functional use of her limbs.
Former registered nurse Nathan Sutherland, 36, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult for impregnating the woman in a vegetative state in 2018
Sutherland is seen in court following his 2019 arrest
She gave birth at the facility while staff frantically called 911 for help, telling the operator they did not know the 112-pound patient was pregnant.
As part of the police investigation into the assault, mandatory DNA tests were carried out on male staff at the facility, which revealed that Nathan Sutherland, a devout Christian and father of four, was the rapist.
Investigators arrested him and he was later convicted in court of rape and sentenced to ten years in prison.
Sutherland blamed being sexually abused in an orphanage and neglected by his mother, which he said caused him to “act inappropriately” and “commit the evil act.”
That revelation came as a huge shock to the staff, as he was described as the most unlikely suspect. He had worked at Hacienda for eight years, and the staff there loved him so much that they expressed relief that he was working in the aftermath of the gruesome discovery.
At his sentencing, he expressed ‘sincere’ remorse for his actions.
‘I feel very sorry for the victim. You don’t deserve to be hurt. No matter what was happening in my personal life and what demons I was fighting. I had no right to put you through that. No words can express how deeply sorry I am. I’m truly sorry.’