DETROIT, Mich. (WXYZ) — Congressman Shri Thanedar and two members of the state’s largest community mental health organization want answers about how two patients at a Detroit hospital could be sexually assaulted inside while a third was able to take her own life.
The calls for accountability follow a 7 News Detroit investigation last week, revealing that in the span of 73 days, two female patients at Detroit Receiving Hospital reported being raped by other male patients and a 21-year-old woman was able to take her own life in her hospital room.
Detroit Receiving Hospital is part of the Detroit Medical Center.
RELATED: 2 patient rapes, suicide reported at Detroit Receiving Hospital in under 3 months
“I was infuriated, I was disgusted with what happened,” said Congressman Shri Thanedar, whose district includes Detroit Receiving Hospital. “These patients are helpless.”
This week, Thanedar requested an investigation by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, calling it “imperative we understand the root cause of such disturbing events.”
“Clearly, the hospital does not seem to have adequate staffing (and) processes to protect these very vulnerable patients,” he said. “And that’s heartbreaking. That angers and frustrates me.”
Thanedar isn't alone.
Jonathan Kinloch, a Wayne County Commissioner and board member of the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network (DWIHN), said the three patient tragedies were evideece of "serious system failures."
Both patients who allege sexual assault are clients of DWIHN. For that reason, Kinloch sent a letter to the mental health network’s interim CEO requesting a “comprehensive review” of the three incidents to ensure that the county can take “appropriate action to prevent any recurrence.”
“This is very concerning and it just seems like at this point, someone needs to step in and get some serious answers,” Kinloch said.
Detroit police records show that a patient admitted to Detroit Receiving’s Crisis Center in April of this year was sexually assaulted by another male patient while she was sedated and in four-point restraints.
Surveillance video showed the assault took place for about five minutes before a staff member intervened, according to police.
Only a few weeks later, an almost identical assault took place in the same unit when a pregnant patient—also in four-point restraints—reported she was raped by a different male patient in June.
Later that same month, a 21-year-old woman who came to Detroit Receiving after a failed suicide attempt was able to successfully take her life in her own hospital room with staff just steps away.
“It’s quite alarming that could take place in a major hospital that we pay for all the behavioral health clients that are there” said Bernard Parker, a longtime board member of the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network.
Parker said he wants DWIHN to learn more about staffing ratios at Detroit Receiving, which he fears may not be adequate to keep patients safe.
Current and former hospital employees say the tragedies were made possible largely due to chronic understaffing.
“Lack of security, lack of staffing,” said a current DMC employee who spoke to 7 News on the condition that he not be identified because the hospital did not give him permission to speak.
“The patients are not in a safe environment, and you don’t have adequate staffing to make sure that happens."
Congressman Thanedar was also concerned to learn about claims that the hospital had offered six-figure sums to family members of patients following abuse.
According to the mother of one of the patients abused who spoke to 7 News Detroit, she says she was offered $350,000 by hospital executives in a meeting that followed her daughter’s sexual assault.
“I think they were trying to bribe me,” she told 7 News. “I think they were trying to coerce me into making it sound like they were doing something really good for my daughter.”
In a separate lawsuit, a now-former DMC nurse who says she was fired for blowing the whistle on unsafe conditions says the family of another victim was offered an undisclosed sum following her sexual assault in exchange for not suing the hospital.
If confidential deals are being made by the hospital, Congressman Thanedar says, he wants to bring them into the light.
“We want to know how many such agreements have been signed in the last year or last two years,” Thanedar said. “We need to really understand. It almost really looks like this could be a cost of doing business, and it should not be handled that way.”
Through a spokesman, the Detroit Medical Center declined to comment on whether any changes to staffing or other hospital operations were made following the recent patient tragedies.
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
