Colorado hospital sued by two women who claim ICU nurse sexually assaulted them

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Charges have been filed against a Colorado Hospital for failing to prevent two women from getting sexually assaulted while unconscious in intensive care.
• The hospital’s male nurse has already been arrested and charged with assault.
• The hospital is cooperating with the investigation but refused to give further details out of respect for patient privacy.

A proposed class action suit was filed by two women who alleged that the management of St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction and SCL Health and Intermountain Healthcare failed to prevent a male nurse from sexually assaulting them while they were unconscious in intensive care.

The women maintain that management should have known the actions of their nurse, Christopher Lambros. 

According to the police who have arrested and charged Lambros with sexual assault, the nurse recorded himself sexually abusing incapacitated or unconscious female patients.

From court documents, prosecutors have already identified three people who were allegedly assaulted by Lambros and one unidentified victim in 2016.

In his arrest sheet, Lambros has five video recordings of himself abusing a patient one day in June, as he whispered to the camera “not to ever get rid of the videos and keep them forever as it is your Dexter collection.”

According to the lawsuit, Lambros was referring to the TV show “Dexter” whose main character is a serial killer.  It also shows that Lambros had a photo and video collection of his victims.

The women’s lawyer, Siddhartha Rathod said, these women who are filing the charges against the hospital are the same ones who filed the assault charges against Lambros. A third unidentified victim has passed away.

Rathod also said that investigators found four terabytes of data and are further looking for more evidence. His firm believes that with that amount of data of “approximately 700,000 cellphone photos or 65,000 hours of cellphone videos”, there could be more possible victims. Lambros has been working with St. Mary’s since 2012.

A class action would encourage other victims to come forward.

Rathod added, “This is about public safety and about hospitals ensuring that their patients are not only safe but treated with dignity and respect.”

Lambros’ lawyer, Scott Burrill has not responded by any means to a request for comment.

On the other hand, St. Mary’s released a statement saying that it is fully cooperating in the investigation but declined to comment on the lawsuit. It said, “We cannot offer further details about this matter out of respect for patient privacy.”

Meanwhile District Attorney Dan Rubenstein in a statement said, “We cannot comment on what evidence we have, and also cannot speculate on what we may find.” He further said that the situation is complicated with regards to protecting patient privacy laws and the need to acquire information for prosecution.

In general, the identities of people involved in sexual assault cases are not disclosed. 

Source: CBS News