A registered neonatal nurse in New York State has been fired and now is facing charges after being recorded slamming a newborn baby face-down in a hospital-issued bassinet.
The father of the child witnessed the assault as it happened and shared the video with the Long Island hospital officials immediately.
The Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney released a statement confirming the nurse, Amanda Burke, had not only been terminated from the Good Samaritan Hospital but is also now charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a Class A misdemeanor, for her outlandish conduct on Feb. 6, 2023.
Tierney called the allegations against the 29-year-old Holbrook medical professional “truly disturbing” and noted that members of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Special Victims Unit carefully investigated the incident for two months before taking appropriate action to arrest the woman.
On Wednesday, April 12, Burke surrendered herself to the Suffolk County Police Department.
At the time of the incident, Burke was serving in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and was assigned to care for the 2-day-old child at the center of the case. The child was kept in the NICU for observation because his doctors were administering antibiotics to him.
The child’s father Fidel Sinclair was watching over his young son Nikko through a window and witnessed Burke approach the newborn, who was lying face-up and apparently crying in a bassinet. The former nurse then picked the baby up, flipped him over, and “violently slammed him” front-facing down in the bassinet.
“I don’t know, it just broke me. I didn’t know what to do,” Sinclair told local station NBC 4.
The father quickly went to share the cellphone video with his baby’s mother, Consuelo Saravia. The mother, still recovering from giving birth, confronted the nurse.
After exchanging words with Burke, the parents contacted officials at the hospital and shared what she did, and within an hour she was ordered to exit the premises and was informed she was no longer employed by the West Islip hospital.
Luckily, Nikko is doing well and is currently at home with his parents and thriving. The family says they wanted to make sure other children were not harmed at her hands.
Burke has secured attorney Robert C. Gottlieb to represent her as she faces these charges.
“This case should never have resulted in criminal charges,” the lawyer said in a statement. “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,” Gottlieb continued. “The District Attorney’s statements are off base and not justified by all the facts that will come out in court.”
The lawyer also stated the DA “grossly distorted the facts.”
CBS News 2 reported despite being terminated, as of Thursday, April 13, Burke’s license as a registered nurse remains active.
Burke is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.
