The massive nurses strike hitting three major New York City hospital systems now has a body count.
There’s been at least three deaths at Mount Sinai — including two babies who died during delivery and a 24-year-old intensive-care-unit patient — since nurses at the hospital, Montefiore Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian hit the picket lines Monday, according to a union official who attributed the deaths in part to lack of care because of the strike.
“Our PCAs [patient care associates] are saying a lot more code blues are being called,” the union honcho and longtime Mount Sinai’s nurse, who requested anonymity, told The Post Saturday.
The startling revelation came as the strike by nearly 15,000 NYC nurses — which has the support of Mayor Zohran Mamdani — reached its sixth day.
“Code blue means somebody’s dead. It has a medical emergency. So, like, you have to start CPR and an emergency team comes. It’s normally doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, anesthesia, and respiratory. It’s literally just to try to resuscitate someone.”
“We’re hearing that more alerts are being called,” she added. “Our patients are sicker. And more people are dying. I mean, I’m not gonna lie to you about that.”
The official also claimed the temporary nurses being used by the three hospitals to fill the void are overwhelmed and overworked, adding, “there are some really unsafe things happening.”
The strike is the largest nurses’ walkout in city history and the longest in recent memory, far surpassing the 7,000 workers who picketed for three days in 2023.
But while hospital executives were caught off guard three years ago by the strike — which ended with favorable contracts for the nurses — they’ve taken an aggressive stance this go-round, after the New York State Nurses Association pushed for staffing and pay increases as well as to maintain health benefits.
Katie Duke, a retired nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai also picketing for the NYSNA, said she regularly hears from other staffers at the hospital who also believe the strike has turned deadly – including for the 24-year-old who allegedly died in the intensive care unit while on a machine that helps circulate blood flow and breathing.
“It is the highest level of life support for somebody who’s waiting on, like, a lung transplant,” Duke said
“So, the patient … wasn’t restrained and sedated properly. He pulled a tube out of his neck, and he died.”
“There are things happening inside, because this hospital is settling for staff who are not qualified to take care of patients, because they refuse to negotiate with the nurses and give them their contract,” she said.
“So they are sacrificing patient safety. And the problem with this is that hospitals feel like nurses are so easily replaceable, but they’re not… My heart goes out to that patient’s family.”
Reps for Mount Sinai declined comment.
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