Police Collect DNA From Male Employees After Woman In A Coma For 14 Years Gives Birth

PHOENIX, AZ —The criminal investigation continues into the coma patient who recently gave birth to a baby despite being in a “vegetative state” for 14 years.

The 29-year-old Native American woman, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, was a patient at Hacienda HealthCare center in Phoenix. She had a baby boy on December 29, according to Arizona’s Family.

The Guardian reported that the patient came to the nursing facility after a near-drowning.

John Micheaels, a lawyer for the woman’s family, said in a statement that “the baby boy has been born into a loving family and will be well cared for,” according to People.

"The family obviously is outraged, traumatized, and in shock by the abuse and neglect of their daughter at Hacienda HealthCare,” he said.

It is not yet known who has taken custody of the infant.

Arizona detectives served a search warrant to obtain DNA from male employees at the care facility as part of a sex abuse investigation to determine how the woman became pregnant and who fathered the child.

A source earlier told the news site that "none of the staff were aware that she was pregnant until she was pretty much giving birth." "From what I’ve been told she was moaning. And they didn’t know what was wrong with her,” the source said.

The facility has implemented "heightened safety measures" since the incident, according to multiple news sources.

Meanwhile, male staff members at the facility have been asked to give DNA samples as part of the police investigation into the incident.

Earlier this week, Hacienda HealthCare CEO Bill Timmons announced his resignation. The move was unanimously accepted by the board of directors.

Gary Orman, Executive Vice President of the Hacienda Board and a Board Member since 1992, said in a statement that Hacienda “will accept nothing less than a full accounting of this absolutely horrifying situation, an unprecedented case that has devastated everyone involved, from the victim and her family to Hacienda staff at every level of our organization.”

The facility has stated that it would continue to cooperate with the police investigation.

Read more: Arizona's Family, The Mirror, The Guardian