NICU mom stays by her son's side after his nurses leave to strike - CNN

New York CNN  — 

Lora Ribas hasn’t near her son’s bedside successful 4 days.

Her one-year-old baby, Logan, has been successful the neonatal intensive attraction portion (NICU) since helium was born. For the past 3 and a fractional months, he’s been nether the attraction of Mount Sinai Hospital wherever thousands of nurses are presently striking.

Logan was calved prematurely astatine 27 weeks and is connected a ventilator due to the fact that his lungs were underdeveloped.

Mount Sinai’s NICU has been consistently understaffed adjacent earlier the strike, Ribas said. But since Mount Sinai’s nurses began picketing Monday, caller question nurses person replaced Logan’s superior attraction nurses – nurses who don’t afloat recognize her son’s needs, she said.

Ribas said she’s excessively frightened to permission her lad unsocial nether the attraction of the caller question nurses. She took a permission from enactment to enactment by his side.

“It’s scary to deliberation that I can’t adjacent spell to the bath without maine being concerned,” Ribas told CNN.

Although the question nurses are trying to compensate, they “don’t truly cognize my son” and are inactive learning wherever supplies are astir the unit, Ribas said.

They aren’t capable to springiness him one-on-one attraction due to the fact that of the staffing shortages, according to the mom, and she said the staffing levels are adjacent little astatine night.

Two nurses presently moving wrong Mount Sinai Hospital told CNN Monday that further traveling nurses person not shown up arsenic expected connected their floors to regenerate nurses that are striking, causing accent for patients and staff.

Mount Sinai Health System did not instantly respond to CNN’s petition for comment.

In mentation for the strike, Mount Sinai announced Friday it would transport newborns successful its intensive attraction unit to different country hospitals. But the astir captious babies – similar Logan – person stayed successful the hospital’s NICU unit. One NICU caregiver astatine Mount Sinai who spoke to CNN connected information of anonymity, said moving a NICU babe to different infirmary tin beryllium a risky move.

“It’s a large travel for a babe who’s ne'er been extracurricular the hospital,” she told CNN. “It’s not thing that we privation to happen. We privation our babies to stay.”

The much captious the baby’s information is, the much analyzable a transportation to different infirmary becomes, the caregiver explained.

“You would request astatine slightest a doc oregon caregiver practitioner, a respiratory therapist if the diligent is connected respiratory enactment and a transport caregiver to enactment the pumps and administer medicine if needed,” she said.

Ribas said her son’s superior nurses who are striking close present are heartbroken they had to permission him and person been calling her to cheque connected his status.

“He has truly fantastic superior nurses,” she said. “They were successful tears having to permission him due to the fact that my babe suffered cardiac apprehension 2 days earlier the onslaught happened, and truthful present I’m dealing with that positive the shortage of staff. Which is precise scary.”

The nurses onslaught astatine 2 backstage New York City hospitals – Montefiore and Mount Sinai – involving implicit 7,000 nurses entered its 2nd time Tuesday. Montefiore said it was holding bargaining sessions Tuesday. Mount Sinai has nary plans to bash so, according to the nurses’ union.

The sticking constituent continues to beryllium enforcing harmless staffing levels, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) national officials said.

A pediatric oncology caregiver astatine Mount Sinai who administers chemotherapy to children with crab said it’s hard to permission her patients to strike, but she knows it’s successful the champion involvement of their care.

“We emotion these patients much than anything,” Melissa Perleoni said, “and it breaks our bosom – astatine slightest it breaks my bosom – to beryllium retired present but I person to bash this for the aboriginal of their care.”

Ribas said she hopes infirmary absorption reaches a declaration with the nurses soon.

“The nurses are the bosom of the NICU, and they bash request to fig it retired earlier it becomes a antithetic concern – due to the fact that each azygous minute, each hour, the babies are moving a very, precise precocious hazard of adjacent dying successful here.”

“There’s thing that could bring your kid back. Nothing,” she said.

– CNN’s Tami Luhby, Vanessa Yurkevich and Mark Morales contributed to this report