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KEY POINTS
- The nurse was fired after the child’s parents recorded the alleged incident and showed the video to officials
- The nurse was charged with endangering the welfare of a child
- The baby survived and is now doing well and thriving in the care of his parents
A 29-year-old registered nurse in New York has been arrested after she allegedly lifted a 2-day-old newborn she was caring for and violently slammed him face-down on his bassinet, according to prosecutors.
The nurse, identified as Amanda Burke, surrendered to the Suffolk County Police Department Wednesday, more than two months after footage of the alleged incident began circulating, according to a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Burke was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a class A misdemeanor, said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney.
Burke was working in the neonatal intensive care unit of Good Samaritan Hospital in Long Island when the incident occurred on Feb. 6.
An investigation into Burke’s behavior found that the nurse was assigned to care for the 2-day-old infant. The child was kept in the NICU at the time for observation because his doctors were administering antibiotics to him, Atlanta Black Star reported.
Burke allegedly “approached the newborn while he was lying in a bassinet, lifted him up, quickly flipped him over and violently slammed him face down on the bassinet,” prosecutors said.
The boy’s father, identified by NBC New York as Fidel Sinclair, recorded the incident on his cellphone through the nursery window, prosecutors said.
“I don’t know, it just broke me. I didn’t know what to do,” Sinclair said at the time, according to NBC New York.
The baby’s mother, Consuelo Saravia, confronted the nurse after she watched the video, according to prosecutors.
After the couple showed the footage to hospital officials, the nurse was ordered to leave the premises and then fired within hours of the incident, the district attorney’s office said.
Despite the harrowing experience, the child, who was named Nikko, is doing well and is now at home with his parents. But the couple wanted to make sure that no other children would suffer the same fate.
Burke’s attorney Robert Gottlieb released a statement after the nurse was charged, claiming that prosecutors got it wrong.
“This case should never have resulted in criminal charges,” the lawyer said. “Amanda is an outstanding, exemplary, compassionate nurse who did not and would never do anything to endanger any infant or patient under her care.”
“The baby involved was not injured or ever placed in any danger of injury. The District Attorney’s statements are off base and not justified by all the facts that will come out in court,” Gottlieb said, adding that the district attorney “grossly distorted the facts.”
Burke’s license to practice as a registered nurse has not been suspended as of this writing, though Tierney’s office said it had notified the state’s Department of Education’s Office of Professional Discipline of their investigation’s findings. She is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on May 2.
REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco
