We now have the audio of the frantic 911 call reporting a patient in a vegetative state just giving birth to a baby boy in Arizona. The caller described herself as a nurse, and worried aloud that the newborn wasn’t breathing.
“The baby’s turning blue!” she said, as the dispatch operator attempted to collect the address. “Baby’s turning blue! Baby’s turning blue!”
Another operator soon took over the call.
“One of the patients had a baby, and we had no idea she was pregnant,” the nurse said.
This is a unique first-hand account of the incident from Dec. 29. The Phoenix Police Department announced their rape investigation into the matter last Friday. The patient has reportedly been described as a woman who was in a vegetative state after a near-drowning experience, and stayed at a Hacienda Healthcare facility for over 10 years.
The baby boy is said to be healthy, a source told KPHO-TV last week. That wasn’t immediately apparent in the beginning of the 911 call, but staffers at Hacienda apparently gave the child treatment, and he began breathing.
“Oh, thank God,” the nurse says. The 911 operator says paramedics are on their way.
Hacienda specializes in healthcare for “medically fragile and chronically ill,” according to its website.
CEO Bill Timmons resigned over the debacle. Cops are still trying to figure out who was responsible for raping the patient. Investigators seek DNA from male staffers at the location.
The woman’s family plans on taking care of the boy, according to her family’s lawyer John Micheaels.
“The family obviously is outraged, traumatized and in shock by the abuse and neglect of their daughter at Hacienda HealthCare,” Micheaels told CNN. “The family would like me to convey that the baby boy has been born into a loving family and will be well cared for.”
[Image via AZ Family screengrab]
