By RACHEL MIPRO
Kansas Reflector
WICHITA — An 82-year-old cancer patient and another woman have filed lawsuits against a Wichita hospital after accusations of rape and sexual assault while under hospital care.
The Hutton & Hutton Law Firm filed its first civil lawsuit against Ascension Via Christi Hospitals Wichita, Inc., which operates the Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital, on July 10.
The first lawsuit alleges that a Sedgwick woman was raped while at the hospital on June 15 by 28-year-old Miguel Rodela. Rodela was arrested and charged with rape and two counts of attempted rape on June 21 in Sedgwick County District Court.
Rodela, dressed in a T-shirt and basketball shorts, followed an employee into the hospital after midnight and entered the patient’s room, according to details in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, the patient woke up to find Rodela touching her. When a nurse interrupted Rodela after 20 minutes, he claimed to be a nursing student, and the nurse left Rodela alone in the room with the patient again.
Rodela then left her room and sexually assaulted two other patients on the same night, telling hospital staff that he was alternatively a staff member or a family member to avoid suspicion, according to the case lawyers.
“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,” said Hutton & Hutton attorney Blake Shuart in the first lawsuit announcement. “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.”
The lawsuit claims “medical negligence, ordinary negligence and premise liability” on the part of Ascension Via Christi, with the victim seeking an amount greater than $75,000.
The lawsuit followed a one-day strike by unionized nurses at the hospital after Rodela’s arrest. The nurses said they had significant safety concerns and demanded more transparency and change from the hospital after patient and employee safety issues.
The law firm announced a second lawsuit Monday, on behalf of a second victim, an 82-year-old cancer patient.
According to the lawsuit, she woke up because a stranger was kissing her on the mouth. After a bed alarm was activated, a hospital staff member who checked on her found Rodela kneeling beside the bed with his hands under the blankets near her thighs.
After telling the staffer that he was a “nurse tech,” he left the woman’s room and proceeded to his third attack of the night, according to the lawyers on the case.
A certified nurse assistant found Rodela in the third patient’s room and asked him if he was a family member. After Rodela said he was a relative, the CNA asked Rodela to help adjust the patient’s body and left him with the patient after the adjustment was finished. Security later found Rodela on top of the patient, lifting up the patient’s shirt, the lawsuit alleges.
Hutton & Hutton lawyers said there might be more victims.
“We believe video exists of Miguel Rodela on several different floors in the hospital, leaving us to wonder whether there are more victims who have not yet been identified,” said Andrew Hutton, the Hutton & Hutton founding attorney.