Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, is drawing scrutiny after a doctor told of horrors that allegedly occurred at the hospital while he or she was a pediatrics resident there.
The city-run hospital is plagued by chronic negligence, unqualified care, and poor supervision, the unnamed physician wrote in an anonymous report
published by the New York Post.
"We were chronically understaffed and most of the nurses were pulled from other departments. They didn’t know how to find a vein in a child’s arm for an IV, or how to perform CPR on a tiny infant," the report reads.
The doctor detailed stories of a 5-year-old boy whose pulse stopped, an infant struggling to breathe, and a 4-year-old girl experiencing a seizure while providers failed to respond appropriately.
"In addition to staff not being adequately trained for the specialized departments where they were thrown, the hospital was plagued by a poor work ethic. The staff would leave regularly to get food or take naps, while lax attending physicians failed to lead," the doctor wrote.
Shortly after the publication of the report, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York called for an investigation of the hospital,
the Post said in a separate report.
“It’s in my old district, it used to have a reputation as high quality and now there [are] a number of questions, and there needs to be a thorough look,” Schumer told the Post. “I haven’t seen the details, but the reports I’ve seen are extremely troubling.”
Patients at the hospital expressed concerns.
"This hospital needs to be closed," Lana Bodner told the Post. "If you need surgery, and you want to live, do not come here. You might as well die in your house."
Others, including state Sen. Diane Savino, defended the hospital.
“The Coney Island Hospital staff that I know work their rear-ends off, and to suggest that they don’t, and that they don’t care about children — that’s outrageous,” Savino said, according to the Post.
Last month, the hospital was cited for six violations following the death of a Brooklyn grandmother suffering from a brain infection,
the New York Daily News reported.
Grisel Soto was apparently suffering from meningitis, but was reportedly misdiagnosed as having a reaction to synthetic marijuana and given anti-psychotic drugs to sedate her.
The hospital's executive director and chief nursing officer were replaced after Soto's death.
Twitter users shared mixed reactions to the Post's explosive exposé.