A man charged with raping a partially paralyzed stroke victim at a Bronx hospital has admitted to having sex with the woman but insisted that the intercourse was consensual, even though she could not tell him so.

Keith Nembhard, 37, was arrested on Saturday evening at Bronx Lebanon Hospital after a nurse caught him having a sexual encounter with a 32-year-old patient who was incapacitated at the time, having suffered a stroke and multiple seizures.

When interviewed by detectives, Nembhard did not deny that he and the woman engaged in sexual activities in her hospital bed, but maintained that it was not a forced act that would merit criminal charges.

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Keith Nembhard, 37, accused of raping a 32-year-old female patient with a severe brain injury at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, said they knew each other and she consented by nodding and smiling at him

'C’mon, she could nod her head, she could say, “No”. She could say, “Yes,”’ he was quoted by the New York Daily News as telling police.

The rape suspect claimed that the woman is a prostitute and that he has been her long-time client and was in love with her.

Nembhard said he learned of her medical emergency from her father and went to visit her in the hospital at around 5.30pm on Saturday.

That is when Nembhard said she signaled to him her willingness to have sex with him, even though, according to court documents, the right side of her body was paralyzed as a result of the stroke and she had 'minimal ability to speak.’

‘I blew kisses at her and she smiled at me,’ Nembhard told investigators. ‘She knows what she is doing in her mind, she just didn’t have the verbal ability to put it in a sentence. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t complaining.’

Nembhard sought to downplay the entire incident, stating that the encounter lasted no more than a minute or two before a nurse drew back the curtains around the patient’s bed and caught the pair in the act.

The 37-year-old suspect was then arrested and charged with rape in the second degree.

Nembhard was being held in jail on $50,000 bail.

It is the second serious incident at the hospital this year.

In June, a disgruntled former doctor killed one and injured six former co-workers at the Bronx-Lebanon hospital.

Dr Henry Bello, a family physician, opened fire at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital where he used to work at about 2.45pm on Friday June 30.

The 45-year-old gunman was hiding a high-powered assault rifle under his white medical coat and had his ID card on him when he started the shooting spree on the 16th and 17th floors of the hospital, police sources say.

Police Commissioner James O'Neill confirmed that the shooter died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the building.

The shooter had tried to set himself on fire prior to fatally shooting himself. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side.

The body of the female victim, believed to be a doctor, was found next to the shooter on the 17th floor. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Five of the victims were seriously injured in the shooting rampage and one victim is being treated for a gunshot wound to their leg.