URGENT SCARE
I warned of ER understaffing and was fired
A FORMER nurse administrator at Kings County Hospital says the medical center keeps its emergency room chronically understaffed, leading to patient deaths and epic admission waits that last as long as four days.
Cornelia Williams, 49, filed a lawsuit Monday against city Health and Hospitals, accusing brass at the Brooklyn hospital of firing her in 2016 after she repeatedly voiced her concern over dangerously low level of staffing.
The whistleblower said she regularly witnessed people waiting 40 hours or more for admission. In one instance, on June 18, 2015, a patient waited 61 hours and 58 minutes. In another, a patient languished for 96 hours, she said.
The long waits weren’t just an inconvenience — they had deadly consequences, Williams’ lawsuit says.
One night in fall 2015, a 20-year-old woman suffering from an asthma attack came into the ER. “Although the patient needed to be sent to the critical care department immediately, the nurses failed to provide prompt treatment due to understaffing,” the lawsuit says.
While awaiting admission, the woman died when her trachea swelled shut.
The lawsuit did not identify the patient, and Williams’ lawyer Megan Goddard declined to provide the information because of medical privacy laws.
In spring 2016, another ER patient died after she had an allergic reaction to morphine. The patient told a doctor about the allergy, but the condition was never documented on her medical chart.
“The nurse, under immense pressure to act quickly, administered morphine in accordance with the chart, and as a result, the patient suffered a sudden anaphylactic reaction and died,” the lawsuit says Williams had two decades worth of clinical experience when Kings County hired her as a nurse educator in October 2013. She was promoted to administrative assistant director of nursing in February 2015.
The lawsuit says that after each death or near death, Williams complained to her bosses about the thin staffing, noting nurses were required to manage at least 13 patients simultaneously.
Williams said Kings County fired her on April 8, 2016, because of her repeated complaints.
“My client stood up for patients and for nurses who were put in an impossible situation. We believe she was fired for doing so,” said Goddard.
Robert de Luna, a spokesman for Health and Hospitals, said his office could not disclose the reason for an employee’s dismissal or provide information on deceased patients. But he called the wait time allegations untrue.
“The average wait time for patients in the emergency department before being seen by a provider is under 90 minutes, and the wait time for sicker patients is far less,” de Luna said.