A woman who claims a doctor took advantage of her when she was heavily sedated in a hospital room is speaking out.
To protect her identity, we're only calling her Laura. She's speaking out because she wonders if she's the only one.
"I'm not only Laura; I represent lots of women, women who've been raped and mistreated," she said.
Two years later, the doctor she claims sexually assaulted her has been charged.
When Laura checked into Ben Taub Hospital, she never expected to be taken advantage of by a doctor.
"He has no fear, he is used to it, he is used to it," she said.
Police say Dr. Shafeeq Sheikh went into her room several times through the night and sexually assaulted her. A rape kit was performed, the DNA matched and he was arrested.
Laura was being treated for shortness of breath and wheezing. She was kept overnight and sedated, but she remembers this: "He abuses his authority, uses his power, easily enters and without thinking twice takes control over someone who is sick," she says.
Laura believes there are other victims.
"Of course, yes, and the reason I think so is because this person had everything very organized," she said.
In the hospital, she even tried calling for help, but the nurse's button was unplugged.
"I want us to value the life of a woman and understand that a rape doesn't have social status," she said.
Now, she's filed a lawsuit and is sharing her story. She wants other victims to know they're not alone, even if they are up against a doctor.
"I want to inspire and motivate these woman to find the courage to talk and speak up to get out of the pain they're in," she said.
Sheikh no longer works at Ben Taub. He'll be in court again in December.
We reached out to the Sheikh's attorney, Lisa Andrews, who released this statement:
"Dr. Sheikh vehemently denies the allegations and is anxious to start defending himself; however, he has been unable to do that thus far as the District Attorney's office has been unwilling to provide my client with the most basic discovery, like the police report, despite our repeated requests. These allegations are two years old. Making a copy of a police report takes less than five minutes. I can't speculate about the motives of the District Attorney's Office at this point, but it does make me wonder why HPD sat on this case for so long and now the District Attorney's office appears to be doing the same thing. This week, I filed a discovery motion with the Court. Despite my motion and the Judge's request for the Asst. DA to provide me with an offense report before indictment, the Asst. DA refused to commit to providing that in the timeline requested by the Judge. If you have nothing to hide, you should be willing to allow your evidence to be scrutinized."
