Maggots Found At Health Facility Where Disabled Woman Gave Birth

PHOENIX, AZ — A Phoenix health-care center where a severely incapacitated patient delivered a baby last year after she was allegedly raped by a staff member may lose its license after maggots were discovered on another resident.

The Arizona Department of Health Services on Friday said in a notice of its intent to revoke the license of Hacienda De Los Angeles’ Intermediate Care Facility for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities that the action is “necessary to protect” the residents.

The notice doesn’t mean immediate closure of the center, but gives state health officials more oversight power at Hacienda Healthcare. Hacienda has 30 days to request a hearing to keep its license, but if that doesn’t happen, the license will be revoked on July 16.

David Leibowitz, a spokesman for Hacienda, told the Arizona Republic that staff members discovered a “small number of maggots” — the larvae of flies — under the bandage of a 28-year-old patient who had a surgical incision so a tracheostomy tube could be inserted.

Hacienda alerted state health officials about the maggots, and an investigation is continuing.

The maggots around the incision were discovered Wednesday, and the patient was taken to a hospital for evaluation, then returned to Hacienda, Leibowitz told news station KPHO. The insects did not enter the patient’s trachea, he said.

More maggots were discovered on the patient’s neck on Thursday, and he was returned to the hospital. It’s unclear if he remains hospitalized.

Other Hacienda patients who had surgical incisions were examined, and no additional maggots were found, Leibowitz said.

“We're looking at all the possible ways this could have happened,” he told KPHO. “Multiple agencies and multiple medical providers have surveyed the facility and there have been no additional findings against the facility.”

The theory is that a fly entered the facility and laid eggs, Leibowitz said. The facility hired exterminators , and also a contractor to install exterior door blower fans to keep flies from entering the building.

The care facility kept its license under an agreement with state health officials after the severely incapacitated woman gave birth to a healthy, full-term baby boy on Dec. 29, 2018. She had been in long-term care since she nearly drowned at age 3.

Authorities say 37-year-old Nathan Sutherland was working as a licensed practical nurse at the long-term care facility when he raped the 29-year-old woman. Sutherland’s DNA matched a sample taken from the baby, who is being cared for by the family of the disabled woman, and authorities charged him with sexual abuse and abuse of a vulnerable adult in February.

Sutherland has pleaded not guilty to charges. Hacienda fired him, and he has since relinquished his nursing license.