Heartless neonatal ICU nurse is fired after mocking newborn with a birth defect by posting photos with message, ‘your intestines ‘posed to be inside not outside baby’
- Sierra Samuels, a nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital Miami, was fired Thursday
- Samuels posted two photos on Instagram of a baby in her care born with gastroschisis – a condition causing its intestines to be outside of its body
- ‘My night was going great then boom!’ she captioned the first photo
- The second read: ‘Your intestines posed (sic) to be inside not outside baby’
- The hospital first placed her on administrative leave pending a probe
- Jackson Health System said it takes patient privacy breaches very seriously
A heartless neonatal ICU nurse has been fired for mocking a newborn with a birth defect by posting photos of the sick infant on social media and writing ‘your intestines posed to be inside not outside baby’.
Sierra Samuels, who had worked as a nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami since 2016, was fired Thursday following the outcome of a weeks-long investigation into a patient privacy breach, reported CBS Miami.
Samuels had posted two photos on her Instagram of a baby in her care who had been born with a condition causing its intestines to be outside of its body.
A heartless neonatal ICU nurse has been fired for mocking a newborn with a birth defect by posting photos of the sick infant on social media. Sierra Samuels pictured on Instagram
‘My night was going great then boom!’ she captioned the first photo of the baby inside the hospital’s newborn ICU.
Samuels then followed it up with the second photo with a cruel caption reading: ‘Your intestines posed to be inside not outside baby’ and is followed up with ‘#gastroschisis.’
Samuels’ social media also features several photos of her on the job.
Gastroschisis, which Samuels hashtagged, is a birth defect of the belly where the baby’s intestines are found outside of its body, exiting through a hole beside the belly button.
Sometimes the condition causes other organs, such as the stomach and liver, to be found outside the baby’s body.
The hospital learned about the disturbing privacy issue and first placed Samuels on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
The mother of the child was also notified of the breach of privacy, the hospital told CBS Miami.
‘My night was going great then boom!’ she captioned the first photo of the baby (which is cropped out above) inside the hospital’s newborn ICU
Samuels then followed it up with the second photo (blurred) with a cruel caption reading: ‘Your intestines posed to be inside not outside baby’ and is followed up with ‘#gastroschisis’
The hospital confirmed Thursday she had been fired for violating a patient’s privacy.
Jackson Health System said in a statement that all employees go through regular training on its patient privacy policies and that any breaches are taken very seriously.
‘Employees who violate these privacy rules, despite being educated, are subject to disciplinary action including suspension or termination,’ the statement said.
‘As soon as we learned of this potential breach, we immediately placed this employee under administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.’
A litigation attorney told CBS Miami that patients have an expectation of privacy in a hospital – which Samuels breached.
Samuels was fired Thursday following the outcome of a weeks-long investigation into the patient privacy breach
She had worked as a nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami (above) since 2016
David Weinstein said her actions also violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
‘In addition to the general HIPPA violation that we’d be looking at here there’s a sense of decency about the rights and expectations we all have in our likenesses and our images,’ he said.
‘With images, you have a certain expectation of privacy that if you’re in an area that you’re in an area that you believe to be private and in this case a hospital, even more so.’