A registered nurse who was left traumatized after a brutal attack by a patient at Jackson Memorial Hospital is now taking legal action after the harrowing incident.
Yanira Eguileor and her attorney, Michael Pizzi, filed a lawsuit against the hospital and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday. Pizzi claims both organizations refused to protect her client.
“We filed a $5 million lawsuit against Jackson Memorial Hospital and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office for being negligent, knowing for the risks, knowing for the dangers, and yet allowing this to happen,” said Pizzi.
He explained the reasoning behind the lawsuit filed against both organizations.
“The Sheriff’s Office contributed to the negligence by agreeing to provide training and police officers as security personnel, but then not properly training them for this task or ensuring that they provided the much-needed safety concerns,” said Pizzi. “Jackson was aware for decades of the certainty of these types of violent and potentially fatal attacks on nurses.”
Surveillance video showed the alleged attacker, identified as Wenyou Rubin, as he walked through the hospital, with no security nearby.
Rubin had previously been Baker Acted due to mental health concerns, and was arrested. He now faces a felony battery charge and other offenses.
Eguileor was emotional as she shared her pain after seeing the video.
“It’s a lot. I’ve seen the video halfway and I just shut it off,” she said.
Eguileor said that she loves her job, but believes that more needs to be done to protect healthcare workers.
“It’s a hidden secret in Jackson; they have security, they probably say they have security. But the security is not allowed to touch them,” she said. “Even three times calling security, at that time security still wasn’t there. Doctors and registration people were taking him off of me, but the secretary was the one that dragged me out from under him, and the doctors ran and took him out.”
Eguileor recounted her experience to 7News, sharing what happened to her during the attack in May.
“What I experienced since May was traumatic. He hit me, one, two, three, and the third time was the strongest one; he threw me to the floor, and then at that point I just covered my face, ready for a kick,” she said.
Surveillance video showed her lying on the ground after the attack.
Pizzi said that his client was slandered after the attack.
“It’s a classic case of somebody speaks out and instead of providing her with the support that she needs, she gets retaliated against and gets slandered and humiliated,” he said. “She came forward about the brutal assault. And they’re making comments and questioning her integrity and questioning her honesty,”
Now, she said that she hopes no one else has to go through what she did.
“We have each other’s back, and I’m gonna move forward to protect the nurses,” she said. “I love my patients.”
MDSO and Jackson Health System said they will not comment on ongoing litigation.
In a statement released in September, the hospital said:
“After the May incident, Jackson later discovered the unauthorized access and acquisition of our patient’s protected health information by Ms. Eguileor — an intentional breach for personal gain. She also is found to have violated other Jackson policies and that Ms. Eguileor is being afforded all applicable due process protections and is represented by the labor union as the matter proceeds.”
