Every day, patients trust doctors with their lives, hoping they will do their best to keep them safe and healthy. Little did we know, this trust can be abused within a surgery room when the patient has been administered anaesthesia.
Recently, a Brazilian doctor, Giovanni Quintella Bezerra, was caught on camera sexually assaulting a heavily sedated woman undergoing a C-section.
On 10 Jul, the 32-year-old was arrested by police, reported The Daily Mail.
Since the incident made headlines, more women have come forward to accuse Bezerra of abuse. Investigations are ongoing.
A month before the incident, nurses began noticing that Bezerra, an anesthesiologist, used an unusually heavy amount of sedatives on pregnant women.
On 10 Jul, Bezerra was said to have done the same, sedating the woman till she was barely conscious.
According to The Daily Mail, such sedation levels are uncommon during routine procedures. The nurses’ suspicions grew during the first two C-sections that day when Bezerra was said to have positioned himself near the patients’ heads.
They then set up a device to record him during the third operation of the day.
In a video, Bezerra was seen unzipping his pants, pulling out his penis, and putting it in the sedated woman’s mouth.
During the 10-minute assault, he was moving his arm back and forth, as if pulling the woman’s head towards his crotch and pushing it away again.
Following that, he cleaned the woman’s mouth with gauze.
He reportedly also intimidated a nurse who tried to get close during the attack.
After catching Bezerra on camera, nurses informed the police, and he was arrested at the Heloneida Studart Women’s Hospital in Rio de Janerio.
Police then began investigating if Bezerra’s first two patients on 10 Jul were also attacked.
During their investigation, three other women treated on different days came forward to accuse him of abusing them, bringing the total to at least six.
Bezerra has since been sentenced to indefinite detention in solitary confinement while investigations are ongoing.
It was later revealed that Bezerra is also facing a medical malpractice lawsuit from 2018.
The 32-year-old had only just become an anesthesiologist in April 2022.
Speaking to reporters, the victim said she recalls the incident but thought she was hallucinating.
Her husband, who was sent out of the delivery room during the delivery, said he only found out about the attack when he saw Bezerra getting arrested on television.
A spokesperson from the Brazilian Society of Anesthesiology (SBA), Ana Cristina Pinho, said the victim was given a higher dose of sedation than prescribed.
This puts her and the unborn baby at risk, reported Yahoo News.
She went on to elaborate that sedatives are usually used minimally during C-sections. It is typically more for anxiety control than sedation.
Pinho then shared that Bezerra has been removed as a member of SBA.
Doctors are often known to be one of the most trusted professions in the world. Hence, it’s shocking to learn that a certified health expert would abuse this trust to gratify his sexual desires.
From a patient’s perspective, being taken advantage of in that vulnerable position can be traumatising as they may find it difficult to trust another doctor again.
Furthermore, the joy of the couple’s childbirth will forever be marred by this incident.
Hopefully, police will be able to bring Bezerra to justice and offer closure to the victims. We also hope that the victims can get the support they need to overcome this ordeal.
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