A nurse working the entrance strains of the coronavirus battle at New York Metropolis hospitals says “black lives don’t matter right here” — and “gross negligence and full medical mismanagement” are inflicting sufferers to die, in keeping with a disturbing new video.
The healthcare employee, recognized within the YouTube posting and by a pal as Nicole Sirotek of Elko, Nev., stated that when she tried to advocate for her black and Hispanic sufferers, she was rapidly taken off their instances — and witnessed fundamental medical flubs that proved lethal for others.
“They don’t care what’s occurring to those folks. And I simply should maintain watching them die. … Oh, God,” a stricken Sirotek says within the footage, referring to hospital higher-ups and sufferers.
She claimed an anesthesiologist improperly intubated a affected person and that when the physician was instructed, he refused to consider it and waited 5 hours earlier than an X-ray confirmed the error. The affected person died, she stated. One other individual was wrongly given chest compressions and handed away, Sirotek stated, whereas somebody was given the mistaken insulin and died.
“Keep out of New York Metropolis to your healthcare,” she warned. “They don’t care what is occurring to those folks. … It’s like going into the f–king Twilight Zone.”
Quinton Martinez, a fellow nurse from Nevada who additionally traveled to the town to assist deal with COVID-19 sufferers, instructed The Put up on Tuesday that Sirotek was initially working at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens earlier than being transferred to a different facility. He stated she was shipped out of the second when the video surfaced.
Of the trauma Sirotek stated she witnessed, Martinez added, “I wasn’t stunned it was occurring to her.
“Based mostly off of what I noticed, I assumed they might have higher respect for folks and infection-control practices to assist stop [patients] from worsening,” he stated of the town’s healthcare system.
Elmhurst didn’t reply to a request for remark. Sirotek by no means talked about which hospitals she’d been working in.
The Put up was unable to discover a working cellphone quantity for Sirotek. Her husband didn’t return messages looking for remark.
Martinez stated Sirotek was contracted by a healthcare staffing firm that has been offering staff for the town’s strained hospital system. The corporate refused to say whether or not Sirotek labored for them, citing worker confidentiality.
The town stated it couldn’t instantly say whether or not Sirotek labored right here.
Extra reporting by Kate Sheehy