After fainting on the job with a low hemoglobin count in early January 2021, Lenna Ray, then 67, went to HCA Florida Citrus Hospital in Inverness, Florida, for care. Ray was moved to a private room in the emergency department where, over the next four hours, Hiram Bonilla, a male nurse, repeatedly sexually assaulted her, court and police records show.
“He was putting stickers on my chest for an EKG and he said, ‘You got pretty titties,’” Ray recalled in an interview with NBC News. “By the time he finished that statement, he was on me.”
Hospital video reviewed by NBC News shows Bonilla entered Ray’s room 28 times over those four hours, every nine minutes on average.
Heavily medicated, Ray told hospital staff what Bonilla had done, but they pooh-poohed her, she testified, with one staffer telling her Bonilla was “a very good man” and “would never do” what she’d accused him of, court records show.
Ray called her longtime therapist from the hospital and told her about the incidents. The therapist then notified a local center that helps sexual abuse victims. At 2:15 a.m. on Jan. 6, the abuse center notified Citrus Hospital of Bonilla’s alleged assaults, court documents show. It then took almost six hours for the hospital to alert police to the allegations.
When a detective arrived at the hospital to interview Ray, he found the crime scene altered, he testified. Critical evidence, such as bed sheets and a pillowcase, were gone from her room.
In 2022, Bonilla, 60, was found guilty of sexual assault in the incident and is serving a 20-year sentence. Ray sued the hospital for negligence, and in September a jury awarded her $25 million. About a month later, she entered into a confidential settlement with the hospital, her lawyer, Gregory Roe, said.
“Hospital protocol on sexual assault is not written with the patient in mind,” Roe said in an interview before the settlement. “It’s designed to protect the profits.”
Citrus Hospital is owned by HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospital chain. HCA has 187 hospitals nationwide and in the U.K., and 46 in Florida alone. The company earned $4.3 billion during the first three quarters of 2024. Those results were 19% higher than the same period in 2023; HCA’s stock trades at $333, up 21% year to date.
Ray’s repeated abuse at HCA’s Citrus Hospital occurred four months after another male nurse, Mark Miskar, sexually assaulted a patient there, police records show. Miskar is currently serving a 65-month sentence for sexual battery in that incident.
Katie Myers, a Citrus spokeswoman, declined to answer detailed questions about the recent assaults at the facility. She provided a statement saying that Ray experienced “terrible pain” in the Bonilla assault and “our hearts go out to her.”
“We have protocols designed to protect our patients and expect our employees to follow them, as well as applicable laws,” Myers added. “The heinous and criminal acts of an individual do not represent the commitment of our hospital colleagues to the care and safety of their patients.”
