If you have ever undergone a surgery, you know that the activity leaves you vulnerable. You are normally subjected to strong painkillers or anesthesia which can leave you unable to defend yourself. You trust a physician to be professional with you no matter how exposed you are during and after the surgery.
Yet in the United Kingdom, a nurse was recently discovered sexually assaulting patients as they lay helpless recovering from the effects of the anesthetics. The allegations came from patients who were at Spire Washington Hospital in Tyne and Wear. According to reports from the Telegraph, a nurse named Gavin Nicholson was arrested for three counts of sexual assault after patients reported that he had been assaulting them while they were helpless to defend themselves.
The hospital chair had Nicholson struck off the register shortly after the incident and he has been released from his job at the hospital. The hospitals in the UK are now trying to prove public confidence so that citizens will not be scared to come for treatment. The hospital investigation showed that Nicholson had repeatedly touched his patients inappropriately while they were not in a position to defend themselves. The staff say that the actions were a “gross breach of trust.” Nicholson defended his actions by saying that the patients were hallucinating as a result of the anesthesia and that he had never sexually assaulted him.
Shockingly, Nicholson had already served a sentence for sexual assault by penetration and was a registered sex offender before he was hired at the hospital. Placing a sex offender in an occupation with many vulnerable and partially clad people is never a wise or smart idea. If you were sexually abused or assaulted at a hospital, you need to sue for medical malpractice. Talk to a Shreveport personal injury attorney today if you need more information!
