Male nurse allegedly sexually abused about 20 patients in a psychiatric hospital in Bogotá

A new case of sexual abuse was reported inside a mental health hospital. According to national media, a nursing assistant identified as Jorge Enrique Pérez Castro attached to the Mental Health Unit of La Victoria Hospital, which is located in the town of San Cristóbal, south of Bogotá, had abused at least 17 psychiatric patients.

According to the reports, some of the patients are minors and, in addition, she took advantage of sedation and medication to commit the abuses. The subject waited until his victims were immobilized or asleep and subjected them to different sexual acts.

“On Friday night they found one of the nurses in a room with four patients, one of them was immobilized hand and foot. He (Pérez Castro) was supposedly at his break time, when they heard one of the patients screaming, the head nurse came and found the nurse hiding behind the door, another of the patients said that he was giving her oral sex and when they lifted her blanket, the woman had underwear under her knees and was more sedated than usual, she could not say a word,” Susana Vélez, a hospital worker, told RCN Radio.

After the complaints and complaints, the official decided to proceed to the regular conduct, interviewing different patients who could have been potential victims of the nurse and 17 women indicated that the worker used their working time to sedate them more than usual and sexually abuse them.

According to some hospital officials, they had previously reported that this person had inappropriate and strange behavior, but the corresponding decisions had not been taken by the directors, arguing that there was a lack of staff. This situation puts directives in the eye of the hurricane as it is likely that many of the abuses could have been avoided if appropriate measures had been taken earlier.

“There were a lot of complaints saying that the nurse had inappropriate behaviors and they would be hiding this from the patients' relatives, what was happening and the shameless man came in turn, as if nothing had happened,” said a complainant who refused to reveal her name to Blu Radio.

The most serious aspect of the situation is that Pérez Castro, upon learning of the legal proceedings against him, embarked on the flight and so far there is no trace of him.

“He came in turn as if nothing had happened, and they wouldn't let him in, he said they couldn't prove anything to him and that he was going to go on with his normal life. But the orderly told him that he had an arrest warrant and that they were looking for him, at that moment he said “ah they are looking for me, oh well thank you”, he left the hospital and disappeared,” the woman told RCN Radio.

According to Noticias RCN, although the Ministry of Health of Bogotá has not commented on the case, some measures have already been taken on the case and a rigorous investigation was initiated, so that the local entity sealed the hospital's Mental Health Unit, and the patients were transferred.

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