New bodycam footage documents the harrowing moments after a woman gave birth in a prolonged vegetative state at an Arizona nursing home after being raped by a nurse.
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 the footage is heavily pixelated and neither she nor her newborn baby are visible.
The birth took place in December 2018 and sparked global outrage – but bodycam footage has only just been shared by police following a freedom of information request.
“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.
Phoenix police bodycam footage has been released, including a moment when officers entered the victim’s room, which was pixelated to guard her privacy
Bodycam footage has been released nearly five years after a nurse raped and impregnated a 29-year-old woman who was in a vegetative state at an Arizona healthcare facility
The subsequent birth came as a complete surprise to staff at the facility, where the distress was plain to see – all captured in footage now released by Phoenix Police
Many employees were beside themselves with emotion after the sudden birth
The video reveals the chaos and emotion of facility staff in the minutes after the baby boy’s arrival in December 2018.
It also sees police conducting their initial investigation as they try to determine who had access to the victim’s room.
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.
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.
“All her medical records, GPs, nurses, visitor logs from about nine months ago?” a Phoenix police officer asks a staff member at the scene.
“Only female care,” a nurse responds.
“Okay, so reportedly no men ever come into her room?” the officer continues.
“No,” the staff member answers.
Another staff member said it wasn’t until she was changing the victim’s diaper that she noticed a baby was on the way.
After the shock birth you saw many employees standing in tears in the hallway
Other staff members at the facility were questioned about who had access to the victim’s room
The patient’s family also could not understand who could have raped the woman, but a former employee explained how, although the caregivers were all women, the victim would have been treated by nursing staff, including men.
‘When they say caregivers, they are talking about people who wash, dress and feed you. But the nurse is something else. That’s on another level. The nurse hands out medications and things like that,” the former employee explained.
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.’
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
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 was so loved that one of the victim’s parents said she had been on duty the night she was born.
“One of the parents after the birth, Nate, worked. This was before it became known who he was. One parent approached him one evening and said, “I’m so glad you’re working tonight. I know my child is always safe when you are here,” the parent recalled.
Following the publication of the disturbing images this week, Hacienda Healthcare issued a statement:
“Seeing video from that night almost five years ago is still heartbreaking. Our thoughts once again go out to the victim and her family – and we remain disgusted by the behavior of the nurse who harmed a patient.
Sutherland’s abuse came to light in December 2018 after a nurse noticed the victim was in labor and later gave birth to a baby boy. Doctors missed signs that she was pregnant, including that she had gained weight, had a swollen abdomen and had missed periods in the months before the child was born. (Pictured: in court in 2019)
Sutherland is seen in court following his 2019 arrest
Sutherland received the harshest sentence he could receive after accepting a plea deal
‘Almost 5 years later, almost everything about Hacienda HealthCare is different. We have new board members, new leaders, new staff, new security infrastructure, new procedures and new care protocols for residents.
“We made every change required by state and federal agencies – plus our own improvements – and have passed multiple inspections since then. Nothing can change that terrible day, but we have worked hard every day since to ensure no one in our care is ever harmed again.”
The baby boy born in 2018 will turn five years old in December. He is being cared for by relatives of his mother.
His mother remains “healthy” and now lives in another care facility in Phoenix.