- A nurse appeared to slam a newborn baby down in a bassinet in an incident the baby's father got on video.
- Video shows an individual picking up the baby, swiftly flipping him over, and slamming him back down.
- The nurse was fired and is being investigated by the Department of Health and the police.
A nurse in New York was fired and is facing an investigation after a video showed her appearing to slam a newborn baby in a bassinet, NBC New York reported.
Consuelo Saravia and Fidel Sinclair recently welcomed a baby, named Nikko, when they went through a "heartbreaking" ordeal at Good Samaritan University Hospital on Long Island, the outlet reported on Friday.
Sinclair heard his crying son who was being treated in the NICU and went to watch him through the nursery's window, he told NBC New York. Though the curtain was mostly drawn, Sinclair was able to capture a video of his newborn just as a nurse picked him up, swiftly flipped him over, and slammed him face-down into the bassinet, the outlet reported.
"It just broke me," Sinclair told NBC New York. "I didn't know what to do."
He showed the video to his wife, who immediately confronted the nurse and shared the video with other hospital staff.
"I told her 'I don't want you to touch my child. You just slammed him,'" Saravia recalled to NBC New York. "She said 'Oh no, if you think I mishandled him or anything, I'm sorry.'"
A spokesperson for Catholic Health, who runs Good Samaritan University Hospital, said in a statement to Insider on Sunday that patient safety is "our paramount concern."
"Upon learning of this incident, swift and immediate action was taken, including conducting an investigation and consequently terminating the individual involved. Additionally, we reported the individual to the Department of Health for further review," said the statement shared with Insider.
The spokesperson added that it is standard practice for staff to draw the "curtains in the neonatal ICU to provide privacy for the patients and their families."
While Nikko is at home and doing well, his family remains shaken by the incident.
"I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't sleep for like three days. It was just really horrible," Nikko's grandmother, who asked to be unnamed, told News12 Long Island.
"If it wasn't for God who sent me to check on him, we would have never seen any of that happen," Sinclair told NBC New York. "It would have kept happening overnight not only to him but the other babies, too."
Detectives from the Suffolk County Police Special Victims Section are investigating, a department spokesperson told Insider.
A spokesperson for the New York Department of Health, which is also investigating the nurse, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.