The CEO of an Arizona health care company where a woman in a vegetative state became pregnant and gave birth has resigned.
Bill Timmons, Hacienda HealthCare's CEO, quit his position Monday "effective immediately," spokesman David Leibowitz said in a statement to AZFamily.
"Timmons's resignation was accepted unanimously by the Hacienda Board of Directors," the statement read.
On Friday, KPHO-TV reported claims from sources that a woman in the facility who had been in a vegetative state after nearly drowning more than a decade ago had given birth to a baby boy in December.
The source told the network that no one knew that the longtime patient of Hacienda HealthCare was pregnant until she began moaning shortly before going into labor.
The facility provides intermediate care and services to infants, children and young adults who are "medicaly fragile or chronically ill," or have "developmental disabilities."
A Phoenix Police Department spokesman said that a sexual assault investigation had been launched following the birth.
The Arizona Department of Health Services confirmed that a birth had taken place at the facility, and inspectors had checked on the patients there. Heightened patient safety measures were put in place.
"During this time, the agency has required heightened safety measures be implemented at the facility, including increased staff presence during patient interactions, increased monitoring of the patient care areas and increased security measures with respect to visitors at the facility," said a spokesperson for the department.
In its statement Monday, Hacienda HealthCare said it was continuing to cooperate with the police investigation.
Hacienda HealthCare board member Gary Orman said the facility would 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."
Orman continued: "And we will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of every single one of our patients and our employees."
According to the statement, Timmons was the longtime CEO of the company, and had been appointed president only days before he resigned.
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