A New York woman, 39, who took her mother, 67, to Mount Sinai Hospital on Madison Avenue earlier this month detailed "24 hours of hell," highlighting emergency room woes, in a Daily Mail exclusive published Sunday.
Her photos and videos provide an eyewitness account of patients in the hallway of a packed hospital, urine-soaked floors, and overwhelmed staff, according to the report.
The woman thought her mother was having a stroke, but that was ruled out in 10 minutes by a CAT scan; and a nightmare for the cancer patient ensued at the hospital.
"Every corner was filled with people," the woman told the Daily Mail, adding trash was on the floor, urine pots were spilling on the floor, and homeless people seeking treatment were left ignored.
New York hospitals have been hit by staffing shortages and overcrowding after the COVID-19 pandemic stretched staff and services beyond means and led to nursing strikes.
"I want to be in a room not in a hallway, I was in a room just now," an elderly woman yells at staff on a video before hurling water bottles off camera, according to the report. "You want me to get critical? Because I'll get critical real quick. How about that?"
One orderly was seen watching a soccer game, while nurses were on their cellphones or chatting — oblivious to the surrounding chaos, according to the Daily Mail.
The COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine mandates led to thousands of New York nurses quitting, and more than 7,000 went on strike in January to picket for better work conditions and increased pay.
The woman told the Daily Mail she stepped in a puddle of urine from a spilled pan in the hallway. She asked the staff when conditions started deteriorating, and she was told two years ago.
The woman called the experience "disgusting" and said her once first-rate health care experience was now below acceptable standards.
She detailed how staff failed to communicate with each other, as patients in the emergency room were left in limbo.
"Everyone kicks the can down the road until their shift ends," the married mother of one told the Daily Mail. "And then when the new ones come on the ward, they said they don't know what's going on.
"There was another woman crying her eyes out. She was like, 'I've been here for 15 hours; either help me or let me go home.' She was genuinely sobbing, it was really sad."
Mount Sinai declined to comment to the Daily Mail about the allegations of substandard conditions.
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