Comatose Patient Raped; Aide Charged

A fired nurse’s aide was charged Tuesday with raping a comatose woman, who later gave birth without ever regaining consciousness.

It was the first known case of a woman becoming pregnant and giving birth while in a chronic vegetative state.

Prosecutors said a DNA analysis of blood taken from John Horace, 52, established him as the father.

Horace was arraigned on charges of rape and sexual abuse for allegedly attacking the woman last summer in a nursing home in suburban Brighton. The 30-year-old woman was injured in a car wreck in 1985.

The woman’s Roman Catholic family ruled out an abortion, and she gave birth normally on March 18. The 2-pound, 11-ounce boy was born two months prematurely but was otherwise healthy.

Horace could get up to 32 years in prison.

His bail was set at $50,000. He is already serving six months in prison for fondling a multiple sclerosis patient at the nursing home and running a phony sex-therapy business. The sentence ran out on Monday.

The baby is being raised by his grandmother. The woman was transferred last week from a hospital where the birth took place to an unidentified nursing home.