NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn has been ordered to rehire nine nurses that it terminated in 2022 after alleging that they failed to help a patient who spontaneously gave birth in the hallway, an arbitrator ruled.
Arbitrator James Brown ruled Wednesday that the Sunset Park hospital wrongfully fired the entire labor and delivery nursing staff for failing to intervene before a patient suddenly gave birth standing up in the middle of a walkway, stating that external factors such as low staffing contributed to the incident. The hospital claimed that the nurses allowed the patients to wander around the labor and delivery floor unattended, but the union representing the nurses argued that the hospital’s lack of staffing at check-in and unclear signage to direct patients to the delivery unit caused confusion before the surprise delivery.
After two years of arbitration, NYU Langone must give all the nurses their jobs back and provide back-pay, according to the opinion. One of the nurses tasked with supervising the unit is set to receive a three-day suspension for poor oversight of the labor and delivery floor, but will be offered her old position without any changes in seniority, the arbitrator ruled.
Anne Goldman, head of the Federation of Nurses, part of the United Federation of Teachers which represents the nurses, said that the ruling offers some justice to health care workers who were used as a scapegoat for the hospital’s failures.
“What we can’t do is press the undo button and give them back their dignity,” Goldman said.
The health system is disappointed with the arbitrator’s decision and maintains that the nurses failed to meet expectations around their duties to provide care, according to spokesman Steve Ritea.
“Anyone who has a core sense of humanity and watched the video of this incident would be appalled by the lack of response by nine nurses who had no other patients to care for,” Ritea said. He did not answer a question from Crain’s about whether the hospital plans to challenge the arbitrator’s decision.
NYU Langone accused the nurses of willfully ignoring the pregnant patient, failing to help them find the right unit and even making fun of them, according to details outlined in the arbitrator’s opinion. Management further alleged that the nurses failed to show remorse or empathy after the incident, solidifying their decision to terminate them.
The arbitrator said that NYU Langone’s response to the nurses’ lack of remorse was misguided and added that the nurses “should have been given the benefit of the doubt that their failure to show remorse reflected their genuine belief that the hospital was at fault.”
NYU Langone Hospital – Brooklyn is one of six hospitals under the NYU umbrella. The Midtown-based hospital system brought in $14.2 billion in the 2024 fiscal year, financial documents show.
