Patient Safety | 02.28.23
Nurse Captured on Video Allegedly Slamming Newborn Onto Bassinet Fired From Long Island Hospital
by NBC News
A nurse at Good Samaritan University Hospital on Long Island, N.Y., was fired and is now under police investigation after a father filmed his newborn son allegedly being slammed face first onto a bassinet. The baby, Nikko, was only two days old when he was being treated with antibiotics at Good Samaritan's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. That's when Fidel Sinclair, his father, started filming his child through curtains that were not completely drawn. The video captures a nurse allegedly flipping the baby from onto his back to his stomach. Sinclair told NBC New York, "If it wasn't for God . . . we would have never seen none of that happen. And that would have kept happening through the night, not only to him, but to the other babies, too." A spokesperson for Catholic Health, the organization that runs the hospital, issued a statement that read: “Upon learning of this incident, swift and immediate action was taken, including conducting an investigation and consequently terminating the individual involved. Additionally, we reported the individual to the Department of Health." The statement further explained that curtains being drawn is standard procedure in the neonatal ICU "to provide privacy for the patients and their families and because services are being administered at the bedside."
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