Tulsa Woman Calls For Better Security After She Says She Was Assaulted In Hospital

A Tulsa woman wants to warn others after she says she was sexually assaulted while in the emergency room at Saint Francis.

The man was arrested and charged and is set to go on trial next week.

Kathy says she wants the hospital to be held accountable and to see security changes made. She says she would be devastated if this happened to anyone else.

Kathy went to the ER in February because of kidney stones.

She says they took her into surgery and put in a drain to remove the fluid from her kidneys. She had the drain, an IV, a heart monitor, had been given a painkiller, and was too weak to even use the restroom on her own.

“So, when I wake up, I remember this guy's hand right on top of me," Kathy said. "I'm like, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ ‘Hey, stop that, who are you? What are you doing?’ He wasn't saying nothing. He never said one single word the whole time, not a word."

"Then, he comes beside my bed and starts grabbing my breast and I'm like, hey, stop doing that, and he takes my hair and starts twirling it and finally I'm like, get the **** out of my room."

She says she lay there frozen, trying to process what happened and terrified to report it because the man was wearing scrubs, and she believed he worked there.

"I was convinced, no doubt about it, this was an employee, like I just knew it."

Kathy did tell a nurse, who called a supervisor. She says at first they seemed to doubt her story and asked if she suffered from hallucinations.

She says security looked at the video and found Juan Delara sitting in the ER.

It shows him walking into the hallway and looking in the window of one room, then trying the doorknob of another room, before walking into Cathy's room at 11:13 a.m. and leaving around 7 minutes later.

Security showed her a picture of him and she positively identified him.

Security took him into custody, called the police, and Kathy went through a sexual assault exam.

"I was devastated. I could not believe it, especially after the tragedy that happened a couple of years ago, I would've thought that would've been the safest hospital in Tulsa."

The police report says Delara said he'd been drunk, was at the 12 and 12 Addiction Center, fell, and hit his head so was taken to the ER.

Kathy doesn't understand how or why he was wearing scrubs.

"Why isn he in a gown? Why is he in blue scrubs, looking just like y'all? I could've sworn it was an employee."

She says a hospital administrator apologized the next day and the hospital sent her a letter saying they were sorry a stranger assaulted her at their facility, but she doesn't believe that goes far enough.

"They never said, ‘Hey, we done this and this and this since this happened to you, so you don't have to worry about it happening to nobody else.’ They never said that to me," said Kathy. "My thing is, if I don't warn everybody, I'll be responsible if this happens to someone else again. It'll be on my shoulders, and I can't have nothing else on my shoulders."

Delara was charged with rape by instrumentation and sexual battery and has an immigration hold on him because he's in the U.S. illegally.

Police reports say he initially admitted to the sexual assault, but said he thought it was his wife in the room, although she was never a patient.

They say he later said he was just trying to cover a woman with a blanket, then later denied doing anything and said he was being set up.

Kathy testified at his preliminary hearing and is getting emotionally ready to take the stand again at his trial in a few weeks.

"I'll be going through this for the rest of my life. I'm a very strong person, but it was really bad," she said.

Kathy has filed a lawsuit against Saint Francis.

News On 6 contacted Saint Francis for a response and was told they are unable to provide comment on any case that is in current litigation.