Tragic and AVOIDABLE death of Baby X: Infant dies in NICU after low blood count goes unnoticed for hours amid nurses' strike
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: An investigation has been launched into the NICU of Mount Sinai Hospital after a four-month-old baby died when doctors and nurses did not notice the infant's low blood count for hours amid the nurses' strike. The unidentified infant referred to as Baby X tragically died in the New York City hospital on January 11 while the staff was trying to insert an IV.
Mount Sinai runs a 'level four' NICU, meaning they specialize in critically ill and complex infants, including those who have had open-heart surgery, and require highly-trained nurses, according to Daily Mail. A mandatory investigation for any infant death was launched last week after the child was declared dead after suffering from a heart problem according to lab results.
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What happened to Baby X?
The infant's tragic passing was criticized to be the untrained fill-in nurse and doctors who failed to monitor Baby X for hours. Lack of medical attention led the infants' blood count to drop, a source told Gothamist. When the staff finally attended the Baby X to insert an IV, the child was unresponsive. Lab reports stated that Baby X died from a heart problem which could have been escalated immediately even 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 the source.
Why were the Nurses on strike?
More than 7,000 nurses went on strike over understaffing, 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.
Previously one of the 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." The source also reported Infants in the NICU received delayed medical attention for hours and the doctors were feeding babies, and administering medication and vitals which are usually 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" after some of the NICU babies were moved to other hospitals.
Judy Gonzalez, president of the New York State Nurses Association, said neither Mount Sinai nor Montefiore Medical Center which also went on strike was "prepared adequately." "There are many negative outcomes that occur as a result of understaffing, under-resourcing and inadequate training," she told Gothamist. The strike lasted for over four days ending on January 12, after both hospitals reached an agreement. The new measure resulted in a 19.1 percent wage increase and the creation of around 170 nursing positions also improved healthcare benefits, among other benefits.