32-Weeks Pregnant Nurse Loses Unborn Child After Patient Attacks Her In Hospital

A Florida nurse who was 32 weeks pregnant lost her unborn child after a patient attacked her in the hospital, police said.

Cops arrested the suspect, identified as 53-year-old Joseph Lynn Wuertz from Casselberry, for brutally attacking the unidentified nurse at the Behavioral Health Unit of South Seminole Hospital on Saturday.

Wuertz was arrested Tuesday on charges of aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, aggravated battery of a medical worker and manslaughter in the killing of an unborn child, reported Click Orlando reported.

According to the police, the nurse was assisting another patient in a hospital room when Wuertz, who was also a patient at the hospital, entered the room and attacked her. He reportedly shoved her against a wall and attempted to kick her before several hospital staff came into the room and restrained him.

The victim was then taken to Winnie Palmer Hospital for examination and the doctors found that the woman had lost her unborn child in the attack, WFTV reported. The investigators have not revealed the possible motive behind the unprovoked attack.

Wuertz was taken into custody after he was released from South Seminole Hospital. He has been booked into the Seminole County jail. Online court records indicate that Wuertz is being held on $90,000 bail and has been scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 11, 2022.

Last year, a 53-year-old man was arrested for attacking an elderly woman and gouging out her eye at a hospital in Wyoming. The police arrested Patrick Rose for attacking an unidentified fellow patient at Lander Sage West Health Care hospital on Nov. 26. According to reports, Rose ran into the victim's room and jumped on her before the hospital staff could stop him. He gouged out the victim's right eye and destroyed her left eye before police handcuffed him and took him away. The suspect and victim were strangers and they had no interaction before the incident, the police said. The court heard that Rose had a traumatic brain injury and had stopped taking his medications and the incident was an extreme reaction to that.