State investigation of baby’s death at Mount Sinai NICU underway

The state is investigating a Mount Sinai doctor in connection with the death of a baby boy who died at the hospital during the nurses' strike in January, Gothamist has learned.

The distraught parents of 4-month-old Noah Morton say they felt left in the dark as their son died in the neonatal intensive care unit on Jan. 11.

Mount Sinai launched an internal review of the death two weeks later, but the parents say they were unaware of that probe until the hospital contacted them hours after Gothamist published a story on the inquiry. That internal review concluded without a referral to city or state authorities, according to sources inside the NICU.

The new investigation by the state health department’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct is focused on Dr. Peter Pastuszko, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery, according to a letter dated Feb. 9 that was obtained by Gothamist. The state initiated the probe in response to a staff complaint.

“[The doctor] needs to be investigated,” said Saran James, the baby’s mother. “Everything that happened that night needs to be investigated. We don't need this happening to somebody else. Nobody doesn’t need to lose their child.”

“We didn't think anything was going terrible with him... It seemed like everything was going fine.”

A source in the room at the time of the baby’s death previously told Gothamist he died during attempts to insert an IV.

“I was looking at all the puncture wounds,” said the baby’s father, Craige Morton, who held Noah’s body for more than an hour after he died. “It looked like 20 little dots.”

Lucia Lee, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai, said the hospital was unaware of a state investigation. The state health department declined to comment. Pastuszko did not respond to an inquiry.

Nurses told Gothamist last month that all of the hospital’s roughly 120 NICU nurses and nurse practitioners went on strike on Jan. 9, causing a serious disruption in the “level IV” unit that treats the most critically ill newborn patients from across the tristate area. Inexperienced nurses were assigned to the NICU and doctors had to handle duties normally handled by nurses due to a lack of staff, sources said.

James, who has worked as a nurse, recalled following in-depth information on the baby’s treatment regularly posted to a Mount Sinai app in the months before the strike. Once nurses walked out on Jan. 9, information appeared much less frequently.

“It wasn't normal,” Morton agreed. “The monitoring slowed down.”

James and Morton have hired a lawyer, Kardon Stolzman, and are weighing a lawsuit.

The parents recalled getting to know the NICU nurses who were helping to treat Noah, who was born with a hole in his heart, prior to the walkout. Once the strike was underway, an unfamiliar set of nurses were working in the NICU. James and Morton said the hospital hadn’t told them about the strike, which disrupted operations throughout the facility.

“It was common knowledge that the health system was facing a strike challenge, and we had conversations with families in NICU,” said Lee, the Mount Sinai spokesperson.

James and Morton were at a Bronx homeless shelter where they lived with their four other children when they received a call about Noah’s declining health on Jan. 11.

They recalled being told around 9 p.m. that Noah was “looking pale.” Hospital staff needed permission to insert an IV. James gave the go-ahead, not realizing how dire Noah’s health had become, she said.

“Then at around 11 p.m. they called and they're like, ‘His heart is stopping, you need to come to the hospital,’” James said. “But by the time we got there, he was already gone.”

Morton said he held his deceased son, surrounded by Noah’s grandmother, Morton’s brother, aunt, uncle and other relatives.

“They came to meet Noah for the first time and the last,” Morton said.

“We thought we were gonna bring [Noah] home and his siblings would meet him finally,” James added.

When James asked hospital staff what exactly happened to Noah, she said they suggested an autopsy. James declined.

“They said his heart stopped, I mean, we didn’t think anything was out of line. Why cut him open?” she said.

The strike was called off hours after Noah’s death, at roughly 3 a.m., on Jan. 12.

James said she later received the call that Mount Sinai's internal review was underway. But she said hospital officials didn't answer questions about why the inquiry was initiated. She said she also was not told it had concluded.

Lee, the hospital spokesperson, said Mount Sinai informs families once reviews are complete “to prevent any undue stress and in accordance with best practices.”

The state investigation into Pastuszko will take a few months, according to sources.

Stolzman, the lawyer representing Noah’s parents, said a lawsuit could answer questions about the death.

"We will be able to fully evaluate the conduct of everybody involved, and what happened that day that led to this terrible outcome,” said Stolzman. “An outcome which seems to have been entirely preventable."

“It seems pretty clear that this is a systemic failure from top to bottom at this hospital for this unit,” Stolzman added. ”I expect that [the family] will get justice.”

Until then, James and Morton are struggling to explain Noah’s death to their youngest kids.

“The little ones, they’re probably still thinking he's gonna come home at some point,” James said, placing their 3-year-old son, Josiah, on her lap. “Even he was asking us one morning, ‘Where’s Noah? Where’s he at?’”