More than 50 nurses and other staffers sickened at Staten Island University Hospital after mold found in nursery – By Jillian Jorgensen (nydailynews.com) / Dec 31 2018
Staten Island University Hospital (Jesse Ward / for New York Daily News)
It’s their job to keep people healthy — but nurses at Staten Island University Hospital North say their jobs have been making them sick.
Dozens of people working in the hospital’s maternity unit have reported getting ill with everything from headaches to dizziness to swollen throats in recent months, after air monitoring devices found the presence of mold and trace amounts of anesthetic gases, nurses and administrators say.
“Every time I go in, and I have been there six times since this started, I get sick,” nurse Robyn Jacobs, 65, told the Daily News. “I get these headaches, my glands swell, sore throat, scratchy throat, and I lose my voice. And then I get a tightness in my chest like an allergic reaction.”
Darlene Stango (l.) and Robyn Jacobs (r.), nurses at the maternity ward of Staten Island University Hospital, claim they and numerous colleagues have come down with strange symptoms. (Jesse Ward for New York Daily News)
Jacobs isn’t alone — 53 employees have reported getting sick in the unit, according to both nurses and hospital execs. A nursery has been relocated, but nurses are asking for their entire unit to be moved, something the hospital says is not necessary because tests show the air is safe.
The saga began in September when staff in the unit reported a strange chemical odor in the nursery of the hospital’s maternity floor.
“About eight of us that first day wound up having really bad headaches and getting dizzy, light-headed,” Jacobs said.
Since then, the odor comes and goes, the nurses say — but the symptoms seem to keep popping up.
After the odor was reported, babies were moved to a backup nursery in the unit and air monitoring began. Mold was detected at moderately elevated levels, similar to outdoor levels, hospital execs say. Workers found water-borne mold behind a sink wall and decontaminated the area.
Rebuilding of the nursery has begun after air monitoring results came back all clear, hospital execs say.
But nurses fear they are also being exposed to operating room gases.
The hospital said in a statement that air monitoring this month detected “the presence of anesthetic gases sevoflurane and nitrous oxide, which are routinely used during surgical procedures.”
Those concentrations were “significantly below” the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s recommended exposure limit and pose “no risk to patients, staff or visitors,” the statement said.
A certified air gas specialist was brought in to inspect the gas system’s infrastructure and found zero leaks, hospital administrators say. The air is now being retested to see if the trace amounts still remain.
“Hospital administration has been directly communicating with staff multiple times a week, met with union representatives six times and notified the appropriate regulatory agencies to proactively address this matter,” the statement added.
Those assurances haven’t made the nurses feel much better.
“On 9/11, they said the levels are safe and look at what happened,” Jacobs, who works on a per diem basis, said. “I won’t go to work anymore until this is cleared up — because I don’t want to keep getting myself sick.”
Nurses are also worried about the babies in their care — though hospital execs say there have been no reported symptoms in patients.
“Ethically, as a nurse, I’m supposed to advocate for a patient,” nurse Dawn Cardello, 53, said. “If I know my newborn is exposed to something that could potentially be harmful, it’s my role as a professional to speak up.”
“Our position is move us, relocate us, really clear out this unit,” she added. “Get in there, figure out what’s going on.”
“This is my health, this affects me when I go home,” said nurse Dawn Cardello, 53. “Our position is move us, relocate us, really clear out this unit, get in there, figure out what’s going on.” (Jesse Ward for New York Daily News)
But the hospital’s executive director, Dr. Brahim Ardolic, says there simply isn’t a justification to move the entire unit.
“I understand where the fear and concern comes from, I totally get it, and we’re not trying to minimize anyone’s concerns,” Ardolic said. “We can’t move patients and a floor and take those types of risks without having some justification for doing that.”
Since September, close to 30 tests have been conducted by the industrial hygienist for Northwell Health, the nonprofit that runs the hospital, and outside agencies, Ardolic said, and all found no risks.
“There’s never been any intent to actually put anybody at risk, and the unit is safe. The unit is safe for people to be in, the unit is safe for moms, the unit is safe for children,” Ardolic said. “There really isn’t any more testing that we can do at this point.”
Ardolic called the continuing symptoms an “interesting question.”
“I can’t definitively tell you exactly why people continue to have symptoms,” he said. “The only thing that we have found that definitively needed to be addressed was the mold.”
In the meantime, nurses say they’ve continued to worry about their health.
“They keep telling us it’s safe, it’s safe, it’s safe,” Jacobs said. “How safe is it? Because we’re all getting sick.”
Nurses are also worried about operations of their unit.
“My concerns, besides for my co-workers, is when people have to go home, now you’re working short (on staff),” nurse Darlene Stango, 60, told The News. “That means the patient load is higher for everybody.”
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