It is believed that a Brazilian anaesthetist who is suspected of raping a lady while she was under anaesthesia for a C-section may have committed five other such crimes.
In Rio de Janeiro on July 10, 32-year-old Giovanni Quintella Bezerra was detained after nurses grew suspicious of his actions after two C-sections that day and secretly videotaped him during a third, during which they reportedly captured him abusing the patient.
There are now at least six women who have come forward to accuse him of abusing them, according to the police, who were already looking into whether the initial two patients were attacked.
Bezerra made his first appearance in court on Tuesday, where a judge ordered him to spend the duration of the investigation in solitary prison.
He was imprisoned at Bangu, Brazil’s largest prison complex west of Rio, which houses some of the most violent and dangerous offenders in the nation.
When he arrived there last night, inmates booed and beat on cell bars.
Separately, it was made known that Bezerra is a defendant in a medical malpractice case that dates back to 2018, when he was not yet licensed as an anaesthetist and employed by a separate hospital.
Bezerra and a different medical professional are accused of misdiagnosing a female patient’s case of swine flu as a urinary tract infection, sending her into a 23-day coma.
The woman lost her big toe, suffered serious Achillies tendon damage, and experienced significant hair loss while in the coma.
The patient was diagnosed with a UTI and given antibiotics after presenting to the hospital with “delusions, chills, difficulties breathing, shortness of breath, coughing, and dizziness,” according to the Globo newspaper.
Her initial physician apparently disregarded recommendations to check for more serious illnesses and released her, but she soon returned when her condition got worse.
She then came under the care of Bezerra, who confirmed the initial diagnosis and attributed her symptoms to “anxiety,” noting that she was “physically fine.”
That’s in spite of the fact that the woman had excruciating migraines, back pain, was coughing up blood, and experienced excruciating lung pain, which prompted medical professionals to see a different expert.
The patient was passed from doctor to doctor before a fourth one accurately identified acute pneumonia in her and found she had only 25% lung function.
The woman had difficulty moving, was numb, and had “disorientation in time and space” by this point owing to oxygen deprivation.
In order to cure the blood clots that had decreased the blood supply to her body, she had to be put into a coma for 23 days.
Her Achilles tendon deteriorated to the point where it needed to be replaced later.
She lost her right big toe, suffered injury to a nerve in her right knee, and all of these things happened while she was in the coma.
She also lost some of her former memories, lost most of her hair, and developed muscular dystrophy from being unable to walk about.
Investigations into a claim of medical malpractice are just getting started. Bezerra and the other involved doctors have not offered a defence.
Bezerra has subsequently attained anaesthetic status, passing the exam just in April of this year, and is now being accused of using his new position to commit at least one terrible rape of a pregnant woman and perhaps more.
Bezerra allegedly kept the patient who was having a C-section under heavy sedation until she was barely aware in the incident that led to his detention.
According to specialists interviewed by Globo, such degrees of sedation are uncommon during normal surgeries and are typically only used on patients who are in distress or who would resist attempts to operate on them.
Bezerra is alleged to have positioned himself close to the woman’s head while the other members of the team, who were working only a few feet away, were unable to view her from the neck up when the surgeons began to deliver the baby.
After that, he is alleged to have verbally raped her for ten minutes, threatening a nurse who approached him.
However, he was unaware that nurses had put up a phone in a nearby glass cabinet to film him throughout the procedure after growing suspicious of his behaviour during two previous C-sections on the same day.
After watching the video, the woman noticed that Bezerra appeared to be bringing the woman’s head toward his crotch and then pushing it back away.
He was seen using gauze to clean the woman’s lips after the “assault.”
Nurses started to suspect Bezerra a month prior due to the extremely high dose of sedative he utilized, and they subsequently called the police.
The women claimed that Bezerra’s peculiar propensity for situating himself close to the patients’ heads during the two surgeries earlier that day had added to their concerns.
One even said he became aroused during the operation and noticed it.
When questioned subsequently, the victim of the attack that was captured on camera admitted that she remembered the event, but believed she had been hallucinating.
Her husband, who was asked to leave the room while she gave birth, said that he was unaware of the attack until he watched Bezerra on television following his arrest.
As soon as the story gained national and international attention, three more women, including one from a separate hospital, came forward to say they believed they had also been attacked.
The medical gauze Bezerra used to clean the lips of the third patient—which nurses found in the trash and which they believe may contain DNA evidence—is among the evidence that officers are currently gathering.
Police have also taken the doctor’s phone, and sedative vials used during the surgery have been presented as evidence.
The head of the federal police agency looking into the case, Barbara Lomba, claims Bezerra’s pattern of behaviour suggests he is probably a serial offender.
She informed the local media that “he is resourceful, doesn’t show much care when committing the act… There is an abuse of authority.”
Investigators won’t conduct a psychological test, according to her, as the fact that he was able to maintain employment is conclusive proof of his sanity.
Let’s not refer to him as being ill, she said.
Tuesday, when the magistrate made his first appearance in court, he delivered a scathing verdict and informed Bezerra that he would remain imprisoned forever while police built their case.
Every 90 days, the detention will be reviewed to determine whether more time is necessary.
The magistrate stated, “In a birth where the mother was sedated in addition to giving birth to her child—in one of the most significant moments of her life—the custodian, using his profession, violates all the rights she had over herself.”
The pain brought on by the terrible behaviour he engaged in will be recalled on every birthday, and it will mark the day of her son’s birth.
Bezerra will be held in Bangu, the largest penitentiary complex in Brazil, which is located west of Rio and is home to some of the most notorious and valuable inmates in the nation.
The prison is claimed to be managed by the infamous Commanda Vermelha gang and has a well-established reputation for both violence and drug use among convicts.
Drug dealers, killers, and cartel leaders are among those housed there; riots there in 2004 claimed the lives of 30 individuals.
The fifth person to pass away in five years happened there the next year while a security employee was performing his or her job.
On Tuesday night at 9.15 p.m., Bezerra arrived there in front of TV cameras that recorded the sounds of prisoners booing, pounding their cell bars, and jeering at him.
Bezerra’s social media posts from before his arrest paint an image of a conceited, boastful man who frequently shared photos of himself in hospital gowns.
One of these pictures has the caption, “I’m here to reap the fruits.”
Another responds, “Wait, you’ll still hear about me.”