[NPR.ORG] Phoenix police are collecting DNA evidence from all male employees of Hacienda HealthCare, where a patient in a vegetative state gave birth to a child Dec. 29.Police served the long-term care facility with a search warrant on Tuesday, The News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported. "We will continue to cooperate with Phoenix Police and all other investigative agencies to uncover the facts in this deeply disturbing, but unprecedented situation," Hacienda Healthcare said in a statement.
The care facility had considered conducting its own DNA tests, but its attorneys advised that genetic testing of its employees would violate federal law, the company said, according to The Arizona Republic.
"The family obviously is outraged, traumatized and in shock by the abuse and neglect of their daughter at Hacienda Healthcare," said John Micheaels, who represents the family of the woman, according to the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
. "The family would like me to convey that the baby boy has been born into a loving family and will be well cared for."
More details were released Tuesday night about the woman's identity. Officials from the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona say the woman is a member of their tribe and confirmed she "has been in a persistent vegetative state and coma for over a decade," according to a statement obtained by local TV station 12News.
On Monday, Hacienda's longtime CEO, Bill Timmons, resigned as police continue to investigate how a woman who wasn't able to consent to sex was impregnated.
The woman had been a patient at the Phoenix facility for years after almost drowning, according to azfamily.com, which broke the story; police declined to provide NPR with details about their investigation. Staff members reportedly hadn't noticed the patient was pregnant until she went into labor.