A 56-year-old Palm Beach County woman has filed a lawsuit against HCA Florida Woodmont Hospital in Tamarac, claiming the hospital failed to properly vet a male nurse who she says sexually touched her during an outpatient wrist surgery in October 2024. The woman alleges nurse John Vicent Pica made sexually suggestive comments and lifted her gown in a sexual manner without her consent, both before and after her procedure.
According to the lawsuit, detailed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Pica squeezed and cupped the patient's breasts after an anesthesiologist administered a nerve block and left the room, and later caressed her legs sexually while removing her compression devices. The woman says she reported what happened to a nursing supervisor the next day and also notified the Florida Department of Health, which oversees nurse discipline in the state.
The lawsuit claims HCA Woodmont placed Pica in a position of trust with direct, unsupervised access to female patients during both pre-operative preparation and post-operative recovery — a window in which patients may be undressed, sedated, and unable to protect themselves, per the complaint described by the Sun Sentinel. The woman alleges the hospital knew or should have known Pica had a history of boundary issues and sexual misconduct, and that a reasonable background investigation into his employment history would have revealed his unfitness and the foreseeable risk he posed.
A Deposition Account That Disputes the Allegations
Pica, in an August 13, 2025 deposition cited by the Sun Sentinel, testified that the patient misperceived what happened while he was simply doing his job. He said HCA Woodmont suspended him after the patient reported the incident and told him there would be an investigation. Pica, now 63, had been a registered nurse in Florida since August 1996 and worked at HCA Woodmont from 2017 through April 30, 2025 — a tenure he described as approximately eight years — before leaving the hospital.
The Sun Sentinel's reporting also lays out Pica's earlier employment history. He previously worked at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami-Dade County, where he was terminated after a woman alleged he flashed her. He also worked at Broward Health Imperial Point, resigning after a patient complained of verbal abuse in the emergency room. The lawsuit alleges HCA Woodmont hired, approved, selected, or retained Pica despite this documented history of misconduct.
License Relinquished, State Action Timeline
The Sun Sentinel reports that health officials filed an emergency order and administrative complaint against Pica in May 2025, while a separate account from the Fort Lauderdale firm Horowitz Law states that an emergency order suspended Pica's license and barred him from practicing nursing, pending investigation, on April 15, 2026.
What is clear is that Pica voluntarily gave up his nursing license in December 2025 and agreed never to reapply for licensure as a registered nurse in Florida, the Sun Sentinel reports. The Florida Board of Nursing accepted that voluntary relinquishment on April 20, 2026, resolving the disciplinary case. Florida's health department has noted elsewhere that a public administrative complaint is a charging document that has not been proven and does not itself constitute disciplinary action, a distinction worth keeping in mind given the dueling timelines.
Horowitz Law, the firm representing the plaintiff, has separately reported that a Broward Sheriff's Office report dated May 6, 2026, found probable cause for battery and that Pica was charged, and that the lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for psychological and emotional injuries. The plaintiff, identified in Horowitz Law's account as C.W., is represented by attorney Adam Horowitz, who said healthcare providers' alleged misconduct betrays patient trust and that patients deserve to feel safe in medical settings.
Hospital's Attorney Has Not Responded
HCA Woodmont is represented by attorney Daniel Lazaro of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, who did not respond to requests for comment, according to the Sun Sentinel's reporting. HCA itself also did not respond to comment requests. The hospital is located at 7201 N. University Drive in Tamarac.
Under Florida Statute § 768.096, an employer is presumed not to have been negligent in hiring an employee who later commits an intentional tort if it conducted the background investigation specified by law before hiring and that investigation did not turn up information showing the employee was unsuitable. The statute also specifies that failing to conduct such an investigation does not, by itself, create a presumption that an employer failed to use reasonable care — a legal backdrop that could shape how the negligence claim against HCA Woodmont ultimately plays out.
