Recent findings have revealed a horrifying truth about the standard of healthcare in New York City hospitals. During the last five years, 468 people died in the city’s 11 public hospitals due to medical malpractice and negligence.
Lucia Ferreira, 24, won $1 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against a Brooklyn hospital in 2006 for her first child’s death during delivery in 1997. Ferreira and her husband were excitedly awaiting the birth of their first child – a daughter. She was seven months pregnant when she went into rapid labor at home on July 1, 1997.
Unfortunately, complications arose as the baby ended up in a footling breech position, with her head stuck in the birth canal. The baby asphyxiated as she was receiving no blood or oxygen through the umbilical cord and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
A Bronx woman was awarded $110 million in 2019 against her medical malpractice lawsuit against the St. Barnabas Hospital. Keimoneia Redish sued the hospital and several of its doctors for mishandling her asthma attack in Dec. 2010, according to the NY Daily News.
The 48-year-old grandmother was left hospitalized and confined to a nursing home for almost a year after the Hospital’s doctors mishandled her asthma attack, triggering a severe brain injury. She ended up with speech and motor defects, leaving her crippled and suffering for life.
A Bronx man was left paralyzed following spinal surgery at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia University Irving Medical Center) in 2002. Fourteen-year-old Edward Beloyianis visited the hospital for an operation to treat his scoliosis, a medical condition whereby the spine takes the shape of an S-like curve. The surgery left Beloyianis paralyzed for life. He died eight years after the surgery, according to the NY Times. His parents filed a medical malpractice lawsuit and the jury awarded $10,900,000 as compensation for their son’s death.
According to the medical malpractice attorney representing the Beloyianis’ family, the spinal surgery at the Manhattan hospital had left the victim paralyzed from the waist down. Investigations found that the surgical screws were misplaced and were pressing against the spinal cord- the primary reason for the paralysis.
A Brooklyn woman died while giving birth at the Woodhull Medical Center on July 3, 2020. Shaasia Washington, 26, visited the medical center for a routine stress test. At the same time, she was pregnant and past her due date by a few days.
According to the Insider report, the Latino woman had abnormally high blood pressure while at the hospital. The staff decided to keep her under observation and induce childbirth with the help of Pitocin, a drug used to stimulate uterine contractions. The medical staff reportedly asked Shaasia if she wanted an epidural, to which she hesitatingly agreed.
