Blood Test Sought in Rape of Patient

A judge on Monday ordered a fired nurse’s aide to provide a blood sample to determine if he is the father of a baby born to a woman who has been in a coma-like state for 10 years.

John Horace, 52, worked at a nursing home in suburban Rochester where the 29-year-old woman was raped in August, and two co-workers told investigators they saw him acting suspiciously in her room, prosecutors said at a hearing.

State Supreme Court Judge Charles J. Siragusa gave Horace two days to supply the court with a sample of blood that will be tested to establish if there is a paternity link. Charges have not been filed.

A preliminary DNA test of an envelope and stamp Horace licked established a 99.55% chance that he impregnated the woman, said New York Deputy Atty. Gen. Russell Buscaglia.

“Once we do obtain his blood, we can attempt to increase those figures dramatically,” Buscaglia said.

Doctors said they believe it is the first case of someone getting pregnant and having a baby while in a chronic vegetative state. The baby, a boy, was born two months premature on March 18 and a DNA sample was taken from his umbilical cord. He was said to be doing well.

In the last two months, Horace has pleaded guilty in two unrelated cases: to posing as a sex therapist and to fondling a multiple sclerosis patient at the nursing home on Sept. 12. He was fired two days later. He faces six-month sentences in each of those pleas.