HIGHLANDS COUNTY, FL – In July of 2012, 15-year-old “Jenny” was being treated for a serious infection in the Intensive Care Unit when the unthinkable occurred. Jenny’s mother, alias “Michelle”, had given nurses explicit instructions to not allow her daughter’s 16-year-old boyfriend into the ICU.
Jesse Maness and “Jenny” had a turbulent relationship. Michelle, who was the chief nursing officer at the hospital, sought to distance her daughter from the boy as much as possible. “I said under no circumstances is this person allowed in, he was trouble,” she stated to WFLA.
On the one night Michelle spent away from her daughter’s bedside, nurses at Highlands Regional Medical Center allowed the boy into the ICU, despite the fact that only immediate family are allowed to visit.
Their oversight cost Jenny and her mother dearly, and resulted in a two-year case of betrayal, shock, and anger.
The morning after Maness was allowed into Jenny’s room, nurses pulled Michelle aside to say they’d caught Maness in bed with Jenny twice, and one nurse produced an opened condom wrapper.
While Jenny was lying in her bed, on a cocktail of pain killers and sedatives, she had sexual intercourse with her on again, off again boyfriend.
To make matters worse, court records reveal that the hospital claims Jenny and Michelle are responsible due to their “negligence.”
Michelle is outraged at that accusation. “I get angry, because not only did you not protect my daughter, but then you’re going to blame it on a 15-year-old, who was in your ICU.”
Maness admitted to law enforcement that he had sex with Jenny while she was in intensive care, but that she was acting normally, except for one small detail. “I mean, like she was tired a lot.”
Despite his proclamations of innocence, prosecutors charged Maness as a juvenile with lewd and lascivious behavior with a minor and molestation of a child. Both offenses are felonies because a minor cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse.
Maness only wound up receiving a slap on the wrist. He was placed on probation, ordered to complete 20 hours of community service, have no contact with the victim, write a letter of apology to the victim, attend school full time with no unexcused absences or referrals. Sex offender treatment was also ordered.
Michelle has filed a lawsuit against the hospital, though they continue to deny any blame. In a letter Michelle received from the hospital, the director of risk management stated, “The internal investigation did not identify any objective evidence to support allegations of abuse during your daughter’s hospitalization.”
The hospital is clearly trying to cover its own incompetence, but Michelle is not willing to back down.
“I think people should know when there is a company or a hospital that can’t be trusted, doesn’t care about taking care of people and even when they do find out that something like this has happened, and it is so alarming, they choose to do nothing about it,” Michelle said.
[about_faith]
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