A lawsuit alleges that a 13-year-old girl was raped by a 17-year old fellow patient at the since-closed Timberlawn psychiatric hospital, reports the Dallas Morning News.
The father of the girl brought the suit against the hospital in Dallas County court. He says his daughter, who was being treated for depression, is still disturbed about the assault and still needs medical treatment. Universal Health Services, Timberlawn’s parent company, declined to comment according to DMN.
The 144-bed hospital voluntarily closed last year after the state threatened to fine the facility and take away its licenses due to concerns about patient safety. Hospital leadership said the it was closing because of a reduced patient population. A DMN report about the incident revealed that federal hospital investigators found that there were boy and girl rooms near each other, that the floor was understaffed that night and that the hospital made fraudulent reports that the assault happened in a public area.
They found the hospital had placed the boy and girl in rooms near each other and had falsified paperwork to make it look as if the two were in a public area at the time of the assault. They also found the floor was understaffed that night.
Read the entire Dallas Morning News story here.
