Phoenix-based Hacienda HealthCare CEO Bill Timmons resigned Jan. 7 after CBS affiliate KPHO-TV reported a patient in a vegetative state gave birth at the long-term care facility, prompting allegations of sexual assault and other abuse, according to CBS News.
Here are five things to know:
1. A 29-year-old patient who had been in a vegetative state for 14 years gave birth to a healthy baby boy Dec. 29. KPHO-TV, which first broke the news, reported the patient had allegedly been raped several times.
2. In a statement provided to the news station, Hacienda Board Executive Vice President Gary Orman said the organization "will accept nothing less than a full accounting of this absolutely horrifying situation, an unprecedented case that has devastated everyone involved, from the victim and her family to Hacienda staff at every level of our organization," adding that "[Hacienda] will continue to cooperate with Phoenix Police and the investigating agencies at all levels in every way possible."
3. Additional allegations of past abuse at the facility have emerged in the wake of Mr. Timmons' resignation, which Hacienda's board of directors unanimously accepted.
4. Mr. Timmons allegedly encouraged staff members to cover up a 1998 incident involving a different patient, according to CBS News. One former Hacienda manager told the news station the incident went unreported because "Bill Timmons has a temper. And we knew not to mess with that temper because people got fired."
5. The manager said she believes there's been other cases of abuse that have been swept under the rug for years, according to CBS News.