Editor’s Notice: This story incorporates graphic descriptions of sexual assault.
On Tuesday, the 2 ladies nervously sat on their lawyer’s sofa, squeezing one another’s fingers, giving facet hugs, wiping away tears and handing one another tissues.
M.C. and J.V. are sufferer No. 1 and sufferer No. 2 in what their legal professionals say might quantity to hundreds of ladies who suffered sexual assault within the care of a Grand Junction ICU nurse between 2016 and 2022 at St. Mary’s Hospital.
The allegations accuse former nurse Christopher Peter Lambros of routinely going into intensive care unit rooms, administering medicine to deepen feminine sufferers’ sedation after which sexually assaulting them. Lambros has been a registered nurse since 2012 and was employed by St. Mary’s Hospital from roughly 2012 to 2022, in line with the class-action criticism filed in state court docket on Tuesday.
Lambros additionally took tens of hundreds of images and hundreds of hours of movies of the sufferers and of himself assaulting them, the criticism alleges.
“There is no such thing as a therapeutic proper now, it’s like a rollercoaster,” stated M.C., in an interview in her lawyer’s workplace. “My feelings have been actually dangerous, it’s affected every little thing. Even when I attempt to block it out. However I simply don’t need it to occur to extra victims. As a result of St. Mary’s must do one thing totally different. I’m sorry however they’re answerable for him.”
CPR Information doesn’t establish alleged victims of sexual assault.
Lambros reportedly has engaged on this conduct no less than since 2016 — with nobody catching him or reporting him till earlier this yr, the criticism alleges.
Lambros, 61, is at the moment in a Mesa County Jail on a $1 million bond and faces prison expenses with a sprawling investigation ongoing among the many Grand Junction Police Division, the twenty first Judicial District Lawyer’s workplace and the U.S. Secret Service.
Thus far, they’ve confirmed confiscating 4 terabytes value of cellular phone images and movies from Lambros’s cellphone and digital units, in line with the lawsuit.
That’s the equal of 700,000 cellular phone images or 65,000 hours of movies, paperwork stated.
“What’s key right here is our purchasers did not go to see Nurse Lambros, they went to St. Mary’s for medical care,” stated Siddhartha Rathod, one of many attorneys who filed the lawsuit towards SCL Well being and Intermountain, which function St. Mary’s Hospital. “St. Mary’s put this monster alone in a room with them with out supervision. And this nurse has been doing this at St. Mary’s since no less than 2016.”
Bryan Johnson, the hospital president, stated in an announcement on Tuesday that the accused conduct “goes towards every little thing we imagine and worth at St. Mary’s Medical Middle.”
“Sufferers put their belief in us and may really feel secure in our care. We’re working carefully with regulation enforcement to guard our sufferers from those that intend to trigger hurt,” Johnson stated.
M.C. was Lambros’ final sufferer earlier than he was arrested.
He entered her room 324 on July 9, 2022, when she was sedated and on a ventilator after having hassle respiration, in line with the lawsuit. He deepened her sedation with medicine, after which digitally penetrated her and sucked on her breasts, whereas she was unconscious, in line with the criticism. He additionally positioned his head on her naked abdomen and used his cellular phone to take images and movies of himself on prime of her breasts and genitalia, in line with the prison criticism.
One other worker walked in on him and noticed that M.C. was fully uncovered and uncovered on the mattress. That was when Lambros was reported to regulation enforcement.
Three days later, staff at SCL Well being and Intermountain informed M.C.’s husband that his spouse was a sufferer of sexual assault.
At the moment, they have been about to do a lung biopsy on his spouse and he stated on Tuesday that, on the time, he was principally apprehensive about that process once they informed him. After speaking to relations, he sought out an lawyer. He additionally informed hospital employees that he wished to inform his spouse the information when she was house and recovered from her illness.
“I did not need that hanging over her head, you realize, as sick as she was, to stop her from therapeutic,” he stated.
When M.C. bought house, her husband informed her what occurred.
“I assumed he was joking,” she stated. “After which he confirmed me the police report and I misplaced it. They put this monster within the hospital and there’s, you realize, I’m not the one one. There are different folks on the market. It’s been occurring approach too lengthy and it’s sickening. It’s sickening {that a} nurse can do that to any person.”
J.V. lives in a rural city and is a cattle rancher and, in June, checked herself right into a Delta hospital when her throat was swollen. Inside 20 minutes that they had intubated her and he or she remembers little after that, together with the transport to St. Mary’s Hospital, which is a stage one trauma middle.
Whereas sedated within the intensive care unit, Lambros engaged in comparable conduct with J.V. As with M.C., he recorded movies or took images of it for what he stated was his “Dexter” assortment, in line with the lawsuit.
In a single such video from June 24, 2022, Lambros whispers to the digital camera saying, “don’t ever do away with these movies” and “that you must hold them endlessly … That is your Dexter assortment.”
“Lambros’s use of the phrase “Dexter assortment” is a reference to the tv sequence Dexter. Within the Dexter sequence, the primary character Dexter Morgan is a serial killer,” the lawsuit stated. “This confirms that he maintained a group of images and/or movies of the folks he victimized.”
J.V. stated her mom tried to go to her, and Lambros informed her mom that it wouldn’t be well worth the journey to the hospital.
“He satisfied my mom that I might by no means keep in mind her,” J.V. stated, tearfully. “And in order that left me susceptible, on my own, for eight days with this monster.”
When J.V. wakened, she informed different nurses that Lambros was a “very dangerous man,” the criticism stated.
She refused extra remedy and left the hospital on July 7, 2022. Hospital officers didn’t name her till early November to inform her she was a sufferer of sexual assault — however she stated she nonetheless doesn’t fully know what occurred to her or what number of occasions.
“They stated we now have to name you and let you know as a result of that is going public,” she stated. “You continue to don’t have any actual solutions although. What occurred in these days I used to be knocked out? What occurred? I’ve by no means gotten a straight reply and I’m undecided I ever will.”
J.V. stated she continues to pay greater than $900 a month in medical payments for her keep.
The hospital stated police are persevering with to inform “recognized” victims within the case, however wouldn’t elaborate on how they’re discovering these victims and the way far again that investigation has gone to this point.
“We perceive that our former sufferers might have questions or issues, and we need to provide them help,” stated a hospital assertion issued on Tuesday.
Lambros’ subsequent court docket date is in January in Grand Junction.
