A nurse in Long Island was arrested and charged last week after being caught on video picking up a two-day-old infant and slamming him face down into his bassinet.
The nurse, Amanda Burke, 29, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with endangering the welfare of a child, which is a Class A misdemeanor.
The incident happened on February 6 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, Long Island.
Prosecutors with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said: ‘Burke approached the newborn while he was lying in a bassinet, lifted him up, quickly flipped him over, and violently slammed him face down in the bassinet.’
Baby Nikko was just two days old when a nurse was caught on camera slamming him face down into his bassinet in the NICU, where he was receiving a round of antibiotics
Burke was, at the time, a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit, in charge of baby Nikko’s care.
The baby’s father, Fidel Sinclair, recorded the incident on his cellphone through the NICU’s window, where Nikko had been receiving a round of antibiotics.
The baby’s mother, Consuela Saravia, subsequently confronted the nurse about the footage.
Burke was fired ‘within hours of the incident,’ said a release.
District Attorney Raymond Tierney said: ‘The allegations against this defendant, who is someone entrusted with the care of our most vulnerable citizens, are truly disturbing.’
But Robert Gottlieb, an attorney for Burke, said: ‘This case should have never resulted in criminal charges.’
‘Amanda is an outstanding, exemplary, compassionate nurse who did not and would never do anything to endanger any infant or patient under her care.
‘The baby involved was not injured or ever placed in any danger of injury. The District Attorney’s statements are off base and not justified by all the facts that will come out in court.’
Burke is set to be arraigned on May 2. Her nursing license has not been suspended.
Back in February, Saravia said the video left her extremely distraught. ‘It was heartbreaking. I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t even sleep,’ she said.
The brand new mother confronted the nurse who had mishandled her child: ‘I told her: ‘I don’t want you to touch my child! You just slammed him.’
‘She said, “Oh no, if you think I mishandled him or anything, I’m sorry.”‘
The baby was ultimately unharmed.
New Parents Fidel Sinclair and Consuela Saravia were horrified when they saw the nurse roughly handle their newborn who was in the NICU
He later returned home with his parents, but the pair were left rattled and on edge after the incident
Nikko’s mother, Consuela Saravia, said she was so distraught over the incident she was unable to sleep and instead cried
Good Samaritan Hospital located on Montauk Highway in West Islip, Long Island is where the incident took place. The hospital is part of the Catholic Health System and is one of six hospitals
Luckily, baby Nikko was unharmed and later went home with his parents
In February, a spokesperson for Good Samaritan Hospital told DailyMail.com that the nurse has been a ‘recent hire’ and she terminated immediately after the incident.
‘Upon learning of this incident, swift and immediate action was taken, including conducting an investigation and consequently terminating the individual involved,’ the hospital official said.
‘Additionally, we reported the individual to the Department of Health for further review. Keeping our patients safe remains our paramount concern.’
Nikko father, who observed the incident, said there were many other babies in the NICU at the time of his observation.
‘There were a lot of babies in there and it made me feel like if that happened to Nikko who else did that happen to,’ Sinclair said.
‘I find it messed up that in a room like that they have all the curtains closed.’
The parents said the room had no security cameras and Sinclair felt that he was fortunate enough to be able to catch the nurse in action and see his son to through the curtain and capture the wrongdoing taking place.
The spokesperson told DailyMail.com that having the curtains in the ICU are ‘standard procedure.’
‘It is standard procedure to have curtains in the neonatal ICU to provide privacy for the patients and their families and because services are being administered at the bedside,’ they said.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk