WellStar sued over nurse's alleged sexual assaults

Last month, five patients filed a lawsuit against WellStar Health System, which operates Cobb Hospital, saying the health care system neglected to properly monitor them in the operating room. The husbands of three of the patients joined in the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, four of the women were giving birth by Cesarean section. Serdula is accused of over-sedating them, rendering them unconscious. He then allegedly exposed himself and molested them after their babies were born and whisked away.

Serdula taped these interactions using his cell phone camera while other staff were in the room, according to Tommy Malone, the attorney for the alleged victims. The staff apparently did not see what was happening because a curtain is hung between the mother and her lower body to prevent her from viewing the surgery.

Malone said it was clear from the videos that other hospital staff were in the room.

"If people had been paying attention to the safety of the patients, he wouldn't have been able to do these things," Tommy Malone said. "He knew they were inattentive to what was happening at his end of the operating table or they knew what he was doing."

The fifth alleged victim was a 12-year-old girl who was admitted to Cobb Hospital Aug. 26, 2009 to have her appendix removed.

Serdula was not on the list of doctors that the patients authorized to administer anesthesia, although he was a licensed nurse anesthetist and whose employer, Tri-County Anesthesia, was approved to work at the hospital.

"We are greatly concerned with the allegations and their impact on the patients and their families," said WellStar spokesman Keith Bowermaster. "WellStar has fully cooperated with the Cobb County Police and Cobb County District Attorney's office in their investigation and prosecution of Serdula, and will continue to do so."

Police say more people were probably victimized by Serdula without even knowing it.

More than a hundred people were recorded in videos taken at dental offices and surgical facilities where Serdula worked. Two of the known facilities are Goldstein, Garber & Salama Dentistry and Cobb Hospital.

Serdula was arrested Nov. 18, 2009 after a woman using the bathroom at the dental office noticed a camera hidden under the sink and notified police. Investigators found hundreds of videos saved on recording equipment and computers at Serdula's home.

"There still are over a 100 victims that we have not been able to identify from electronic devices," said Cobb police spokesman Dana Pierce.

Serdula was released from jail in July on $250,000 bond. He was ordered to remain under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor while awaiting trial. Serdula's nursing license was suspended after the allegations came to light last year.

The lawsuit is the latest of several blows to WellStar, one of the state's biggest health care providers with five hospitals in Cobb, Paulding and Douglas counties. In August 2009, seven plaintiffs sued the health system, claiming they were sexually assaulted by a respiratory therapist and an orderly at Kennestone Hospital.The lawsuit is still pending.

In August, the hospital system agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle allegations that it improperly billed the state Medicaid system, resulting in excessive payments from Medicaid. The health system fired its president in September.