DISTRESSED NURSE EXPOSES NYC HOSPITAL DURING COVID CRISIS: “THEY’RE KILLING PATIENTS!”

Nurse Nicole Sirotek recently spoke out about harmful practices being carried out at a NYC hospital. Nicole traveled to NYC from Nevada to provide relief for hospitals that are understaffed. Nicole is obviously in distress in the video, mentioning that she had a near breakdown the previous day. She happened to voice her realities publicly. In the shocking video, Nicole outlined her experience working at an adequately staffed NYC hospital and declared that:

1.) Patients are being “murdered” through negligence, mismanagement and other harmful practices, according to Nicole. She provided a few examples of these negligent practices when stating that she witnessed a cardio patient who was unnecessarily given a defibrillator by medical staff. The patient unfortunately died but not due to COVID 19. She also witnessed an anesthesiologist who intubated a patient incorrectly and a doctor who ruptured a person’s vein who then bled to death.

“There was a nurse who placed an NG tube into some guy’s lungs and filled his lungs with tube feeding. There was a nurse who confused a long acting insulin with short acting insulin and gave 30 units of a fast acting insulin and killed the guy.”

These two patients also died but not due to COVID. She’s taking care of COVID patients but the patients are dying due to negligence and medical mismanagement.

2.) There are no advocates available for patients who are admitted and treated for COVID-19 in her hospital. Nicole stated that she tried to stop the staff member who unnecessarily gave a defibrillator to a patient by reporting them to the nursing director but the director simply brushed it off. She also reached out to advocacy groups and nurse management but failed to receive a response. When she spoke out about an issue or attempted to advocate, she stated that she was moved to a different floor.

As a nurse, she is simply doing her duty to advocate on behalf of her patients, many which are minorities but she finds her efforts blocked or ignored. Currently, relatives are not allowed to visit hospitals where their loved ones are being treated for COVID-19. This makes it hard for relatives to keep tabs on their family member and to ensure they are being cared for properly.

3.) Patients are not actually being treated for COVID. She detailed the cocktail of drugs that a patient on a vent was receiving: a mix of breathing treatments and insulin. Medical staff are also not assessing patients and staff fail to realize when when a patient has died.

By the end of the video, Nicole began crying and pleaded for someone to come up with solutions for her because she’s out of ideas in trying to save her patients from being “killed.”

“I am literally telling you that they’re murdering these people and nobody will listen to me.”

It is unfortunate what is happening here at this NYC hospital which is in a disadvantaged neighborhood. As I’m familiar with the area, the hospital she worked for is not in Manhattan but a different borough.

What Are Possible Solutions to deal with lack of advocacy and gross negligence during COVID crisis?

As I conclude this article, I am thinking of solutions for the issue of lack of advocacy. The first step is for people, politicians and lawmakers to become aware of what is going on in hospitals especially as they relate to stats and data concerning Covid-19. If patients are not actually dying due to COVID and are actually dying due to negligence, this needs to be properly recorded. Other health care workers need to be aware so that they can utilize their own voice and resources to speak out. Nicole is one person. Other nurses and doctors working on the frontlines need to communicate with each other and work together to find resolves.

The hiring of patient advocates during this time is absolutely necessary in order to help resolve problems that Nicole speaks of. Also, relatives need to be able to keep tabs on their loved ones and this could be where the field of technology comes in. A 24 hr monitoring device that would allow patients’ families be active in the care, watch and advocacy efforts of their family member. The device will help patients to have 1x or 2x daily access to caretakers of family members to discuss patient progress. Should doctors and nurses wear body cams due to negligence that is happening. That could be another solution!

Nicole uploaded the video onto her Facebook page and within a day or so, her entire facebook profile had been deleted. Hopefully, she is okay.

Benjamin Wachenje has started a petition on change.org to President Trump and Whitehouse admin to investigate the situation. Would you sign?: SIGN THE PETITION

If you would like to view the video, here it is but be aware that there are many expletives in the video in case you have a sensitive ear!