Gadsden hospital sued over sexual assaults

Two Gadsden women have filed a lawsuit against Gadsdens Riverview Regional Medical Center for negligence after they were sexually abused in their hospital rooms by a man who had been treated in the emergency room.  The two patients, identified only by initials in the lawsuit, contend the hospital failed to protect them at a time when they were vulnerable and sedated, and failed to properly investigate and notify the Gadsden Police Department, allowing the assailant to leave the hospital.  Both plaintiffs were hospitalized on the third floor when the incident occurred May 6.  One woman had recently had surgery in Birmingham and was in the hospital after serious complications. The other had suffered a heart attack.  29 year old Christopher Lamont Lewis,  came to the hospital for treatment after he said a group of men tried to rob him and assaulted him. He told police he was on North Eighth Street about 1 a.m. when a group of men stopped him and wanted to look at socks he sold from his vehicle. He told police they threatened and assaulted him. He suffered a cut over his eye before he got away and drove himself to the hospital.  Between 2 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. May 6, the two elderly female patients were forcibly subjected to sexual contact in their respective hospital rooms, police reported. Their assailant was a man fitting Lewis’ description, down to the cut over his eye.  Other patients reported the same man walked into their rooms.  Lewis was arrested May 9 in Escambia County, Fla., for burglary and theft offenses. Gadsden police investigated and got warrants charging him with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. He remains in the Etowah County Detention Center on $40,000 bond.