Illinois nurses receive $7.9M settlement after hostage incident

A nurse at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Ill., collected $7.2 million from a lawsuit settlement with Kane County, Ill., after she was held hostage and sexually assaulted by a hospitalized inmate, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The lawsuit, which four nurses joined, claimed Kane County, a corrections deputy and a private security firm were at fault for the hostage standoff. The settlement totals $7.9 million, according to court documents and a police report obtained by the Chicago Tribune. Another nurse taken hostage received $650,000, while two other nurses involved collected $25,000 each.

The hostage incident occured on May 13, 2017. While hospitalized at Delnor Hospital, Tywon Salters took a handgun from a correctional officer with the Kane County Sheriff's Department. He then took two nurses captive and sexually assaulted one of them, according to the report. SWAT officers fatally shot Mr. Salters about five hours after the ordeal began, and one nurse was struck in the arm by the bullet that first hit Mr. Salters.

The nurses' lawsuit alleged the sheriff's officers and private security guards failed to follow proper procedures while guarding Mr. Salters during his hospital stay. While federal court records don't indicate if the lawsuit was dismissed, the nurses and their spouses agreed to dismiss the suit in the settlement, according to the report.

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