New York Post

Paralyzed gal’s hosp ‘sex’ horror

- By KATHIANNE BONIELLO kboniello@nypost.com

Paralyzed from the neck down after falling off a Manhattan rooftop, a teenager endured a second nightmare when she was sexually assaulted by a Mount Sinai hospital worker, a new lawsuit alleges.

The 19-year-old, whose name is being withheld by The Post, was hanging out with friends in March, drinking in the stairwell of a Washington Heights building, when she and one of her pals went to the roof to urinate, sources told The Post at the time.

They went to opposite sides of the roof to do their business, but the woman stumbled, tumbling to an adjacent roof two stories below.

Cops found her face down and with her pants around her ankles, sources said.

The accident left the woman without the use of her arms and legs, according to court papers.

Now on a ventilator, the woman was being treated at Mount Sinai Medical Center in May when a worker allegedly sexually assaulted her, she charges in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed against the hospital.

The woman was “alert and oriented” when the unidentifi­ed male worker “spent a prolonged period of time in [her] hospital room, without any other staff present,” and “assaulted [her] while she was legally incapable of consenting,” the lawsuit claims.

A female staffer should have been with the male employee while he attended to a female patient, the woman says.

The NYPD’s sexual-assault-response team “thoroughly investigat­ed” but could find no evidence or physical indicators of an assault, according to a source.

“Right now, nothing has come up to show anything happened,” the source said, adding cops would revisit the case if new evidence came to light.

The girl’s mother died years ago, a relative said. An aspiring photograph­er, the girl referenced her past in a group home for a 2014 photo exhibit, according to a Facebook post.

“Is a house ever a home when serenity is gone?” she wrote. “The fine line between safety and comfort is tied every day in my group home. For years, it seemed to be that the only way to give recognitio­n to my integrity, tragedy and strength is to capture them in my personal images.”

Mount Sinai declined to comment.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States