Sex Crimes Investigator, Officer Padilla, directed the Crime Scene Technician to secure Carolina Destefano's bloody pad after it was reported her son was witnessed lying on top of his mother, kissing her, and inserting his finger into her rectum. Carolina was transported to the ORMC emergency dept. with an alleged rectal anal hemorrhage. Mr. Destefano sued the entity responsible, claiming that the blood was withdrawn Carolina and planted on the pad to support the false report that her son caused her alleged rectal bleeding.

Lawrence Destefano picketed Florida Hospital 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 18 months.

Contact Us

Email: aahr@healthcareretaliation.com

Phone: 407-375-2333

On November 30, 2007, the 5th District Court of Appeals published their opinion of Mr. Destefano's appeal. Mr. Destefano will be appealing to the Florida Supreme Court.

HEALTHCARE RETALIATION

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Orlando Sentinel

Anthony Colarossi
Sentinel Staff Writer

October 29, 2005

An Orange County jury determined late Friday that an Orlando nursing home defamed the son of an Alzheimer's patient by alleging the man had sexually abused and mistreated his mother at the home.

The six-member jury awarded Lawrence DeStefano $1 million to compensate him for his loss of reputation and later awarded him another $1 million in punitive damages.

CASE SYNOPSIS

The Note

Mr. Lawrence Destefano was the primary caregiver to his Cuban mother, Carolina Destefano. She was 73 years old and unable to communicate due to advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease.

On September 15, 1999 Carolina Destefano was admitted to Florida Hospital for a urinary tract infection. On September 19, 1999 she was transferred to Florida Hospital's sub-acute facility, Sunbelt Healthcare & Sub-Acute Center (SUNBELT), for rehabilitative and convalescent care.

Throughout the next day, September 20, 1999, Lawrence Destefano was in and out of SUNBELT visiting his mother. When he returned that evening he saw that the wound dressing on her foot was missing leaving an open sore heel ulcer exposed. On three separate occasions he asked Carolina Destefano's nurse, Carol Boze, to dress the wound. With Nurse Boze unwilling to dress the wound, Mr. Destefano changed his focus and offered to help.

Adept at his mother's wound care, Mr. Destefano asked Nurse Boze for a gauze roll, some gauze pads, and ointment so he could dress the wound himself. When Nurse Boze informed Mr. Destefano that he was not authorized or licensed to perform that procedure, he returned to his mother's room and wrote a note which read, "NO WOUND DRESSING ON CAROLINA DESTEFANO." In an effort to prod Nurse Boze into bandaging his mother's wound, Mr. Destefano showed her the note and asked her to either sign it or dress the wound. Defiantly, Nurse Boze chose to sign the note.

To see a larger view of this video click HERE.\

To see a larger view of this video click HERE.

The Threat

Early the following morning, September 21, 1999, Mr. Destefano returned to SUNBELT with the intention of removing his mother from the facility, unaware that everyone in the whole building knew about his mother's wound not being dressed and the note Carol Boze had signed.

As Mr. Destefano entered his mother's room, the Director of Nurses, Rachel Bean, and her Nurse Manager, Mary Thornton, followed him from behind. Once inside an argument ensued between the three of them.

Nurses Rachel Bean and Mary Thornton demanded the note from and threatened to call the police if he didn't relinquish it. When Mr. Destefano refused, Nurse Bean returned to her office to call 911. Nurse Thornton also exited the room and walked over to Nurse Constance Standish's office and told her, "We're going to get this guy. We are going to say he was sexually inappropriate with his mother. We have done this before."

Nurse Standish testified that this threat was delivered in a "very casual, very matter-of-fact- way."

When the police arrived, Nurse Bean had them remove Mr. Destefano from the facility. At this time, Carolina Destefano lost her only advocate.

The Setup

Once the police removed Mr. Destefano from SUNBELT, Adventist Health System, Florida Hospital and Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) executives, administrators, physicians and nurses conspired to defame and setup Lawrence Destefano. They communicated with each other, moving the "plan" forward, until allegations surfaced that Mr. Destefano had sexually molested, assaulted and battered his terminally ill mother.

ORMC Nurse Lillian Folley documented, in a sworn statement to the Orlando Police Department Sex Crimes Unit, and in her Case Management Report, that Nurse Rachel Bean reported, in a call to the DCF Abuse Hotline, that Lawrence Destefano was witnessed kissing his mother on the lips with his mouth open, lying fully on top of her, and inserting his finger into her rectum until she presented with rectal bleeding.

Nurse Bean refuted Nurse Folley's documentation.