A patient who was raped last month at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis by a Wichita man who sneaked in and posed as a nursing student has filed suit against the hospital, alleging the health care provider was negligent and missed clear opportunities to stop the assaults.
The woman, identified in the lawsuit only by her initials, was raped on June 15, 2023, allegedly by Miguel Rodela, who police say sexually abused three patients after he followed an employee through a hospital door. Rodela, 28, is currently facing rape and attempted rape charges in connection with the assaults. The victims range in age from 47 to 82. One is incapacitated due to an injury, according to Rodela’s arrest affidavit.
A spokeswoman for the hospital, 929 N. St. Francis in Wichita, did not immediately answer a request for comment Tuesday.
“We are deeply saddened by the traumatic experience our client endured at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital,” Matt Dwyer, attorney at Hutton & Hutton Law Firm, said in a news release announcing the suit, filed Monday in Sedgwick County District Court against Ascension Via Christi Hospitals Wichita, Inc.
“No patient should ever have to face such a violation of their dignity and safety, let alone in a hospital setting,” Dwyer said in the release.
The woman, a Wichita resident, is asking for a jury trial and more than $75,000 in damages. She suffered physical injuries, emotional distress, mental anguish, lost wages and other harm as a result of the abuse, according to the suit.
Rodela made his way to the woman’s room on the 8th floor, where she was receiving medical treatment, in the early morning hours of June 15, the suit says.
The woman woke up to a man she didn’t know manipulating her external catheter. She felt discomfort and then “repeatedly felt the male’s fingers in her vagina,” the suit says.
“The male told (the patient) that he was a nursing student and that a doctor would be in soon,” according to the lawsuit.
The patient, however, didn’t believe the man’s story because he was wearing a T-shirt and basketball shorts instead of medical attire and protective gloves.
A real nurse entered the patient’s room in response to a bed alarm and saw the man sitting in a chair beside the woman with his hands near her crotch, the suit says.
But the real nurse “did not question” Rodela when he told her he was a “nurse-in-training” and said he was “addressing a leaking catheter,” even though he was in street clothes, according to the lawsuit.
After the nurse left, the woman “grabbed her call light and pushed the button to get the unknown male to quit touching her. Once she was able to press the call button, the unknown male stopped raping her and immediately left the room.”
The nurse returned to the patient’s room after about five minutes and the patient disclosed the assault.
Security video shows Rodela in the woman’s hospital room from 12:54 a.m. to 1:15 a.m. — a full 21 minutes, according to the lawsuit.
After leaving the room, Rodela went to the 7th floor of the hospital, where he allegedly sexually assaulted a second patient. A nurse technician saw Rodela kneeling beside that patient’s hospital bed “with both of his hands under the patient’s blankets near the thigh area” and asked Rodela if he was a family member, the suit says.
Rodela told him he was a “nurse tech,” according to the lawsuit.
The room of the third patient assaulted was located on the hospital’s 6th floor. A certified nurse aid who went into that patient’s room saw Rodela there and asked if he was a family member.
After Rodela said yes, the CNA asked him to help adjust the patient’s body position, according to the lawsuit, and then left them alone.
Hospital security later caught Rodela “on top of the third patient” lifting up her shirt, according to the lawsuit.
Rodela told police after his arrest that he had been drinking and “having sexual fantasies about hospital patients” before he sneaked in and abused the women, his arrest affidavit says. He told police he lied about who he was and ignored legitimate hospital staff to avoid getting caught and “knew what he was doing was wrong and illegal,” the affidavit says.
Rodela has not yet been arraigned in the criminal case, when a defendant would have a chance to enter a not-guilty plea.
The lawsuit accuses Ascension Via Christi of being negligent, careless and deviating from approved medical standards when it allowed “an offender to pose as a nurse or other hospital staff to rape a patient the guise of providing care” when Rodela “was clearly not a health care provider, nurse or staff member based upon his appearance.”
The suit also claims the hospital is negligent in hiring, training and supervising its employees and breached its duty to patients “to provide a safe environment free from harm, and to maintain a safe and secure premises.”
“Mr. Rodela is a threat to society and needs to be dealt with accordingly, but he never could have done this in a hospital with appropriate security,” Hutton & Hutton attorney Blake Shuart said in the release.
“It was this hospital that let him in the door and into the patient rooms. It was the hospital which then allowed him to stay in the room and continue assaulting a patient while wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts because he claimed to be a nursing student. Questions need answered and justice needs to be done.”