The women say the technician, Henry Nweke, assaulted them during procedures from 2020 to 2022 at the Sutter-owned Memorial Hospital Los Banos, where he was the sole ultrasound technician on duty overnight, according to lawsuits filed at the Superior Court in Sacramento County, where Sutter is based. The lawsuits allege Sutter ignored or mishandled complaints about the technician.
In interviews, four of the six women suing Nweke and Sutter told the San Francisco Chronicle their experiences with the ultrasound technician had left them feeling violated, emotionally distressed and afraid to seek medical care. Some described driving long distances to other hospitals to avoid returning to the site of their alleged assaults, which is among the only medical facilities in this Central Valley city of 47,000.
One woman alleges that the technician touched her breasts during an ultrasound, telling her that he could not obtain an ultrasound image of her liver without doing so. Others allege he touched them inappropriately and simulated sex using the ultrasound probe. They are seeking financial damages from Sutter on the grounds that it “knew or should have known that Nweke was harassing and assaulting female patients.”
Attorneys for Sutter argued in court documents that Nweke followed proper protocols for the ultrasound procedures and noted that the hospital is conducting its own internal investigation — its third regarding allegations against Nweke — into the claims.
Two women immediately called police after ultrasound procedures conducted by Nweke, and officers were dispatched to investigate, records show. Police investigated both allegations. In one case, an officer found that “the allegations against Nweke were unsubstantiated.” In the other, officers “were unable to substantiate whether a criminal act occurred” and forwarded the case to the Merced County District Attorney’s Office.
According to court documents, the hospital placed Nweke on paid leave at the end of 2020 while it investigated his conduct after two patients and a staff member accused him of misconduct. It placed him on leave again after a patient reported to hospital administrators and police that Nweke touched her inappropriately during an ultrasound in June 2021. Both times, the hospital returned him to work after internal investigations, records show.
The women, all Latina residents of Merced County, told the Chronicle that they chose the hospital because it was the only one offering ultrasound services in the rural county, and that they would have had to drive at least 45 minutes from their homes to reach the next closest facility.
A former hospital employee said in court documents that Nweke asked her to wipe blood off a pregnant patient who was undergoing an ultrasound exam during a miscarriage. She declared that she was disturbed because Nweke seemed to be “enjoying watching me wiping the patient.” She also said she witnessed Nweke repeatedly lift up the patient’s gown to expose her below the waist, even as she tried to keep the patient covered.
“I was sick to my stomach from it,” the former employee wrote to hospital administrators in a December 2020 email that was included in her court statement.
The Chronicle does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault. But one accuser, Celi Gonzalez, said she wanted to be identified by name to reduce the stigma of coming forward.
Gonzalez went to the hospital’s emergency room with pelvic pain in May 2020. Doctors referred her for an ultrasound exam, during which a female chaperone was present, according to her lawsuit. Gonzalez, 39, alleged in the suit that the chaperone was looking at a cellphone throughout the procedure.
Unlike with other vaginal ultrasounds Gonzalez had undergone, she alleges that Nweke spent a “considerable” amount of time rubbing the wand on her genitalia and inserted the wand with “a push and pull rhythm that was sexual” in nature, according to the complaint. She left feeling uncomfortable and confused, but said in an interview that she did not report the incident because she believed nothing would come of it.
“It made me feel sick,” Gonzalez said. “I tried to suppress it.”
One month after Gonzalez’s ultrasound, in June 2020, a patient made what court records indicate was the first complaint lodged against Nweke. The unidentified patient, who was pregnant and suffering a miscarriage, is not one of the participants in the lawsuits. She complained to a nurse and called police after her ultrasound to report that Nweke had sexually assaulted her.
A copy of the Los Banos police report obtained by the Chronicle states that the patient ran into the hospital parking lot while still hooked up to intravenous fluids. She told the responding officer that Nweke had assaulted her using the ultrasound probe. According to the report, Nweke told the officer and nurses interviewed by the officer that the patient had told him she was “getting horny” during the ultrasound procedure.
After interviewing Nweke and other hospital staff, records show the officer collected “multiple similar statements” contradicting the patient’s allegations. Nweke told the officer that the patient’s pubic area was never exposed. The case was closed without being referred to the district attorney’s office. The officer said in his report that he determined the allegations were “unsubstantiated.”
Three other patients in Nweke’s care that same year later filed lawsuits accusing him of misconduct during ultrasounds, and one filed a hospital complaint. The Chronicle is identifying the remaining accusers who are part of the lawsuits with pseudonyms provided by their attorney because they are alleged victims of sexual assault.
In November 2020, Emma went to the hospital with abdominal pain and was sent to Nweke for an ultrasound to look for ovarian cysts. According to the complaint, Nweke “quickly” dismissed a chaperone who was present and began rubbing her with the ultrasound wand “in a sexual manner” that was “painful” and “incredibly uncomfortable.”
Nweke, the lawsuit alleges, “seemed excited and was smiling while doing this, in a way that was inappropriate for a healthcare professional.” Emma, who is 43, did not complain to hospital administrators.
That same month, in November 2020, another woman says she was assaulted during an ultrasound to check for blood clots after she developed breast pain, according to deposition testimony. Samantha, 55, alleges in her lawsuit that she was surprised when Nweke asked her to take off her underwear.
She complied and alleged that Nweke spent the majority of the examination rubbing the ultrasound wand over her pelvic bone and external genitalia in a sexual manner. That no female chaperone was present made her feel “violated and anxious,” the complaint alleges. In court documents, Nweke and Sutter denied the allegations in both suits.
In an interview, Samantha told the Chronicle his behavior made her feel “so confused and so scared.”
A month after Samantha’s visit, in December 2020, Roni, 36, went to the hospital with abdominal pain soon after becoming pregnant. Doctors referred her to Nweke for an ultrasound, according to the lawsuit.
A female chaperone was initially present but left the room after Nweke told her he was done, the complaint claims. Roni alleges in the lawsuit that Nweke then told her that he “saw something” in the ultrasound images that he needed to investigate. Using an ultrasound wand, Roni said, he began repeatedly rubbing her genital area until she told him to stop, according to the complaint.
Roni alleges that Nweke later appeared in her waiting room and told her that it was “ ‘his personal advice and not medical advice’ that she not have sex until the baby was okay.”
Roni returned to file a complaint at the hospital the next day. Court documents show she reported the incident to the nurse in charge and to Nweke’s supervisor. The supervisor, a doctor, told Roni that the hospital would “look into it, but they would not be reaching out to her to inform her of the outcome,” the lawsuit alleges. Sutter and Nweke denied the allegations in court documents.
Two months later, Roni suffered a miscarriage. According to the lawsuit, she went to the hospital as the miscarriage progressed and told staff she did not want Nweke to perform an ultrasound on her. When Nweke appeared, the lawsuit alleges, she screamed until he left the waiting room. According to her complaint, “no one at the hospital took any action” and Roni was discharged without an ultrasound.
The next year, the hospital opened another investigation into Nweke’s conduct after a separate incident involving a woman who complained to hospital administrators and police.
The patient, Faith, 44, went to the hospital in June 2021 with swelling in her legs and feet. A doctor ordered an ultrasound to check for blood clots. During the procedure, she alleges Nweke “touched her vagina with his fingers and the ultrasound wand” and “made sexual noises,” according to the complaint. Nweke and Sutter deny these allegations in court documents.
Immediately after the ultrasound, Faith reported the alleged assault to hospital administrators and called police, who dispatched an officer to the hospital in the middle of the night.
The officer noted that Faith was visibly upset and had spoken with a doctor, who “asked if she understood the procedure and provided a paper document to her explaining it,” according to a copy of the police report reviewed by the Chronicle. The officer also noted that no chaperone had been present during her examination “due to staffing problems,” later writing that “there is typically not a female chaperon (sic) with this examination because it’s not a traditional pelvic examination.”
An emergency room nurse told the investigator that Nweke was “above reproach” and “so professional,” according to the report. The report also states that a doctor at the hospital and Nweke each separately told an officer that the type of ultrasound ordered required going into the groin area.
The officer reported that the investigation was inconclusive and referred the case to the Merced County District Attorney’s Office for review, records show. Los Banos Police Chief Gary Brizzee did not respond to questions about the investigation. Merced County District Attorney Nicole Silveira said her office was aware of the lawsuits brought by the women.
After the complaint, the hospital placed Nweke on paid leave during its own internal investigation but ultimately found “there was no evidence that Mr. Nweke engaged in any sexually inappropriate conduct,” according to a sworn court declaration from Nweke’s supervisor. Nweke returned to work, and at Nweke’s request, Nweke’s supervisor approved a protocol that a chaperone be present for all of Nweke’s encounters with female patients, according to the supervisor’s sworn statement.
The next year, another woman alleged in a separate lawsuit that Nweke assaulted her. In August 2022, Jessica, 45, went to the hospital’s emergency room, where a doctor ordered an ultrasound of her liver. There was no female chaperone present, and she was alone in the room with Nweke throughout the procedure, according to the complaint.
During the examination, Jessica alleges that Nweke called her “sweetie,” which made her uncomfortable. According to the complaint, Nweke also repeatedly tried to lift her robe to fondle her breasts.
“He claimed that he would not be able to get an image of her liver unless he was allowed to touch her breasts,” the complaint alleges. “She continued to resist, and he eventually stopped.”
Attorneys for Sutter and Nweke continue to deny all allegations and fight them in court.
If you have information about this case or any other alleged abuse by Memorial Hospital Los Banos ultrasound technician Henry Nweke please contact the Los Banos police department.
