BLACK LIVES DON'T MATTER WHITE NURSE CHARGES

Stricken coronavirus nurse: ‘Gross negligence’ has patients dying at NYC hospitals

By Joshua Rhett Miller

New York Post
May 5, 2020

A nurse working the front lines of the coronavirus battle at New York City hospitals says “black lives don’t matter here” — and “gross negligence and complete medical mismanagement” are causing patients to die, according to a disturbing new video.

The health care worker, identified in the YouTube posting and by a pal as Nicole Sirotek of Elko, Nev., said that when she tried to advocate for her black and Hispanic patients, she was quickly taken off their cases — and witnessed basic medical flubs that proved deadly for others.

“They don’t care what’s happening to these people. And I just have to keep watching them die. … Oh, God,” a stricken Sirotek says in the footage, referring to hospital higher-ups and patients.

She claimed an anesthesiologist improperly intubated a patient and that when the doctor was told, he refused to believe it and waited five hours before an X-ray confirmed the mistake. The patient died, she said. Another person was wrongly given chest compressions and passed away, Sirotek said, while someone was given the wrong insulin and died.

“Stay out of New York City for your health care,” she warned. “They don’t care what is happening to these people. … It’s like going into the fucking Twilight Zone.”

Quinton Martinez, a fellow nurse from Nevada who also traveled to the city to help treat COVID-19 patients, told The Post on Tuesday that Sirotek was initially working at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens before being transferred to another facility. He said she was shipped out of the second one when the video surfaced.

Of the trauma Sirotek said she witnessed, Martinez added, “I wasn’t surprised it was happening to her.

“Based off of what I saw, I thought they would have better respect for people and infection control practices to help prevent [patients] from worsening,” he said of the city’s health care system.

Elmhurst did not respond to a request for comment. Sirotek never mentioned which hospitals she’d been working in.

The Post was unable to find a working phone number for Sirotek. Her husband did not return messages seeking comment.

Martinez said Sirotek was contracted by a health care staffing company that has been providing workers for the city’s strained hospital system. The company refused to say whether Sirotek worked for them, citing employee confidentiality.

The city said it could not immediately say whether Sirotek worked here.