A probe has been launched into the death of a four-month-old baby in a New York City NICU during the nurses’ strike after staff did not notice the baby’s low blood count for hours.
An unidentified infant died in a Mount Sinai hospital on January 11 while staff was trying to insert an IV, the day before the nurse strike would end after more than 7,000 went on strike over understaffing.
Sources told Gothamist the infant’s tragic passing took place after untrained fill-in nurses and overwhelmed doctors failed to prepare for the walk-out, leading to the baby’s low blood count to not be noticed for hours.
The probe – which is mandatory for any infant death – was launched last week. The child suffered from a heart problem and sources said the lab results would have been escalated immediately by seasoned nurses.
‘These babies can get very sick very quickly…That’s why subtle things you see are important to report, and highly trained NICU nurses do that,’ one of the nurses who worked in the NICU during the strike told Gothamist.
An unidentified infant (stock image) died in a Mount Sinai hospital on January 11 while staff was trying to insert an IV, the day before the nurse strike would end after more than 7,000 went on strike over understaffing. An investigation into the baby’s death has been launched
The baby’s death came as unionized nurses took to the streets to protest lack of staff, leaving healthcare workers to care for too many patients at a time.
‘Nurses don’t want to strike. Bosses have pushed us to strike by refusing to seriously consider our proposals to address the desperate crisis of unsafe staffing that harms our patients,’ the union said earlier this month.
Mount Sinai reportedly hired hundreds of travel nurses prior to the strike and staffed the NICU with them and other non-unionized staff. A source told Gothamist one of the travel nurses fell asleep in the NICU while on duty and was asked not to return.
‘They put nurses in there who had zero NICU experience,’ another source told the outlet. ‘Parents felt like they couldn’t leave their child’s bedside during the strike.’
Infants in the NICU reportedly received their medicines hours late on multiple occasions, according to the source, and that doctors were feeding babies, taking vitals, and administering medication, which is normally performed by nurses.
Mount Sinai runs a ‘level four’ NICU, meaning they care for critically ill and complex infants, including those who have had open-heart surgery, and require highly-trained nurses.
The baby’s death came as unionized nurses took to the streets to protest lack of staff, leaving healthcare workers to care for too many patients at a time
Mount Sinai reportedly hired hundreds of travel nurses prior to the strike and staffed the NICU with them and other non-unionized staff. Infants in the NICU reportedly received their medicines hours late on multiple occasions, according to the source, and that doctors were feeding babies, taking vitals, and administering medication, which is normally performed by nurses
‘[These babies] are not mini-adults. In fact, they’re not even mini-children,’ Scott Lorch, associate chief of Neonatology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told Gothamist. ‘As babies get smaller or sicker, the skills that a nurse needs to care for them gets more specific.’
One NYC nurse described the unit during the strike as ‘traumatizing.’
‘I’ve seen and done a lot of difficult things in my career. I’ve held children when they died, but this was especially traumatizing,’ a source told Gothamist. ‘I’ve been having nightmares every night.’
Mount Sinai said the NICU was fully staffed with 17 nurses during the staff, but those inside said it was not about the number, but the qualifications of those nurses.
Mount Sinai also moved some of the NICU babies to other hospitals during the strike, according to Gothamist.
However, Judy Gonzalez, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said neither Mount Sinai nor Montefiore Medical Center – which also went on strike – were ‘prepared adequately.’
NYC nurses ended the strike on January 12 after the four-day strike
‘There are many negative outcomes that occur as a result of understaffing, under-resourcing and inadequate training,’ she told Gothamist.
An MIT and Carnegie Mellon University study found in 2010 that between 1984 and 2004 in-patient mortality rates rose 20 percent during strikes in New York.
On average, according to the NYC Department of Health, four babies die for every 1,000 lives births in the Big Apple.
NYC nurses ended the strike on January 12 after the four-day strike.
The New York Nurses Association reached an agreement with Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center, both of which announced the news at around 4am this morning.
The agreements will result in a 19.1 percent wage increase, the creation of around 170 nursing positions and improved healthcare benefits, among other perks.
