2nd Hospital Eye-Stabbing Is Reported

A second man has come forward and said he was stabbed in the eyes by an assailant while a patient at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana, police said Thursday.

Fontana Police Cpl. Nate Harley said Juan Mendoza announced during a news conference called by his attorneys Wednesday that “the same thing had happened to him two years ago” that happened to Steven Solomon, 34, last week.

“We haven’t interviewed Mendoza yet, so we don’t know any of the details about him,” Harley said.

The hospital’s director of public affairs, Lori Drozd, said Thursday that an examination of Solomon “has confirmed that there were puncture wounds to his eyes, inflicted by a sharp pointed object. We do not know how the wounds were inflicted.”

Police said the wounds apparently were suffered in the hospital the night of May 18.

Solomon says he was lying sedated in his hospital bed after undergoing ankle surgery when he was stabbed.

“He said that when he awoke, his vision was blurry,” Harley said.

The extent of Solomon’s injuries has not been made clear.

Kaiser Permanente said last week that security at the hospital has been beefed up in the wake of the purported attack on Solomon, and Drozd said a visitors pass system was initiated Thursday. No assailants have been identified or arrested, police said.