A Miami emergency room nurse has spoken out after surveillance footage captured her being beaten by a patient inside a brand-new hospital wing, as her attorney warns the assault could have turned fatal.
Yanira Eguileor, a career trauma nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital, suffered head, neck, spinal and back injuries when Wenyou Rubin, 44, attacked her on May 30 inside the facility’s new $300 million room. The unprovoked assault also saw Rubin strike patient finance staffer Tisa Wolf before turning his fury on Eguileor, who had rushed to defend her colleague.
Eguileor recounted the moment she intervened in an interview with WSVN in July, after a $5 million negligence lawsuit against the hospital was filed. She had heard a scream and saw Rubin charging toward the nurse’s station.
“I turned around, and this man is running after her, toward the nurse’s station. That’s when I turned around, and I went towards them, and he was about to strike her, and I said, ‘No! Don’t hit her.'”
“He turned around, and he punched me.”
Eguileor told police that Rubin punched her with a “closed fist,” according to dispatch audio obtained by the outlet. She pushed back, but Rubin continued the assault and she fell to the floor before other nurses rushed to her aid and the patient was restrained and wrestled to the ground.
“He punched me a total of three times,” Eguileor said in her July interview.
Her attorney, Michael Pizzi, was appalled by what he characterized as an inadequate security response to the violent beatdown.
“You have a career trauma nurse, knocked semi-unconscious, could’ve been killed, just lying on the floor with no protections while this guy continues to ransack the trauma ward,” he said.
Pizzi has also filed a whistleblower complaint against the hospital, claiming it retaliated against Eguileor by accusing her of acquiring patients’ health information for her “personal gain.” Police have not commented on that lawsuit.
A hospital spokesperson defended the institution’s safety protocols in a statement, saying two public safety officers responded after the attack and that Eguileor was offered immediate care.
“Jackson takes the safety of our employees, patients, and visitors extremely serious. Jackson Memorial Hospital maintains a significant security presence throughout the campus, including in and around the emergency room,” the spokesperson said.
The statement added that all emergency room staff are required to complete workplace violence prevention and personal safety training, which “prepares employees to recognize and respond to threatening or aggressive behavior through de-escalation techniques and strategies to avoid, escape, and protect themselves when necessary.”
Rubin, who was wearing a purple shirt during the attack, faces a charge of battery on an emergency medical care provider according to Miami-Dade County inmate records. He is being held in jail until he can be transferred to a psychiatric unit. Jail records also show a 2024 battery on a law enforcement officer charge against him remains pending.