Heartbroken mom sues Mount Sinai
A woman who was eight months pregnant lost her baby because of botched care provided by Mount Sinai hospital, which allegedly cared more about doing paperwork and keeping her “in-network” than saving the dying child, a new lawsuit charges.
Jana Diaz entered Mount Sinai’s Midwood, Brooklyn, facility about 1 a.m. on Dec. 13 to be treated for cramps and bleeding.
The hospital did not have a maternity ward, or even an OBGYN on staff and none was immediately called, Diaz said
Diaz said it took 90 minutes for the emergency-care doctor to see her and perform a vaginal exam. The doctor, Thomas Fuchs, pulled out her mucus plug and Diaz was told she was clotting.
Meanwhile, the baby’s heart rate had fallen to 104 and hospital staffers seemed more obsessed with filling out paperwork than patient care, Diaz alleges.
“This was clearly an obstetrical emergency. The baby’s heart rate had decelerated and an emergency C-section surgery should have been performed immediately,” said Diaz’s lawyer Jeffrey Guzman.
But Mount Sinai officials insisted at the time that Diaz be transferred to its main hospital on the Upper East Side, about an hour’s drive.
“I said I wanted to be transferred to any hospital in Brooklyn. I was concerned that going to Manhattan was too far. They said I had to be ‘in-network,’ ” Diaz said.
“I sat there waiting. I was in the waiting area on a stretcher.”
Instead of calling 911 to get a city ambulance to more swiftly route Diaz to a closer hospital, Mount Sinai called a private ambulance to take her to its Manhattan hospital, Guzman said.
Diaz said the ambulance didn’t leave Brooklyn until 3:45 a.m and didn’t get to Mount Sinai in Manhattan until 4:40 a.m — nearly four hours after she sought medical assistance.
“My baby had no heartbeat at 5 a.m. They said my placenta erupted,” Diaz said.
Guzman said the failure to call 911 and transfer Diaz to a closer hospital is a major part of the malpractice claim.
Diaz had to deliver the stillborn baby vaginally.
The suit accuses Mount Sinai and Dr. Fuchs of “negligence, recklessness and carelessness.”
“They didn’t treat my situation as an emergency or with the urgency it needed from the beginning when I walked into the hospital.
“Bleeding and cramping at eight months pregnant is alarm- ing, and they didn’t treat it that way,” Diaz said.
“I put my complete trust in the hospital and they failed me in the most horrific way. My only son — and now I don’t have him. Someone needs to be held accountable. I don’t have my son.”
Mount Sinai, in a statement, said, “Our deepest sympathies go to the Diaz family during this tragic time. Out of respect for patient privacy, we will not disclose details of this case or comment further.”
In the meantime, Mount Sinai’s lawyers filed court papers denying the malpractice claim and demanded dismissal of the complaint.