May 8, 2020
By Sarah McCormick
NEW YORK – When Nicole Sirotek made the difficult decision to leave the cozy confines of her family home in Elko, Nevada to go on a volunteer medical mission to New York City, she probably never imagined the events that she’d soon face, or what she would bear witness to when arriving.
According to Nicole in a tearful video posted to her Facebook page, patients arriving to New York City area Hospitals with COVID are dying – at a 100% mortality rate. The worst part? She states they are not dying from COVID-19, but that they are being murdered by “medical mismanagement” and “gross negligence”.
Disclaimer: The Video Below Contains Language That May Be Offensive To Viewers
Sirotek is no newbie when it comes to the medical field. Having become a nurse in 2010, she’s had 10 strong years’ worth of experience, and has worked in home health care, ICU units at Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital in Elko, Nevada, as well as American Med Flights. Being that she gained 10 years’ worth of experience and was well-trained in working with ventilators, she decided to muster up the courage it would take to leave her two small children, husband, and safety net of her hometown in Elko, and make the scary trip to New York as a much-needed volunteer.
After arriving in New York, Sirotek immediately found herself thrust into a new and terrifying environment, one where patients were, as she stated, dropping like flies.
Sirotek had then been switched from one hospital to another after questioning some of the disturbing practices taking place within the hospital, bringing the ongoings to the attention of Hospital Management.
Sirotek created a video on her Facebook page which has gone viral, stating that the day prior she had a ‘complete mental breakdown’ and spoke about how difficult it has been to witness the things she has been seeing – things she has been trying to bring to the attention of Administration, Advocacy groups, and other entities, stating, ‘nobody will help me.
“This is exactly what happened before at the other hospital. As soon as I told somebody in management and try (sic) to advocate for my patient, they take the patient away from me and then they move me. So, like, I legitimately don’t even know what to do anymore. Even the advocacy groups don’t give a (expletive) about these people. Like, literally, black lives don’t matter here.”
Sirotek goes on to state tearfully, “I know not everyone is gonna live. I’m not that (expletive) green or ignorant. I know we are gonna have a (expletive) ton of people die. But, these people aren’t dying from COVID.”
Sirotek details various events she says she witnessed throughout the duration of her time at the second hospital, some incredibly graphic and all very disturbing. Sirotek states she witnesses everything from a patient being defibrillated who still had a pulse, ultimately dying from that procedure. Sirotek witnessed a man choke to death on his own blood from a puncture wound to his esophagus from an ET placement gone wrong. She talks about how a nurse confused long-acting insulin with short-acting insulin, the patient dying soon thereafter.
Sirotek also speaks about how she tried to advocate for a patient to receive a blood transfusion, as most severe COVID patients will end up needing blood transfusions eventually. Her request was denied, as per residency doctors, since the patient didn’t have internal bleeding. The patient ended up dying because of lack of oxygenation in the blood.
Sirotek details about a man who had leakage into his lungs due to an ET tube leaking, and she kept mentioning that his white blood cell count was off. She mentioned the fact that they should start antibiotics, and the doctors told her no because he didn’t have a fever. After the day shift nurse completed an x-ray, it showed that the man had a full-blown pneumonia.
She states she had seen nurses sleeping while others were forced to pick up the slack, and other nurses who have zero experience with certain machines, such as CRRT dialysis machines, and they said they will just ‘figure it out’. She states, ‘I’m pretty (expletive) smart, and I figure a lot of (expletive) out, but I would never attempt to try and figure out a CRRT machine on the fly.”
‘I mean, we’re not gonna save everybody. That’s fine. Like, come on guys, we’re not God. But, like, some of these people; we know they are not gonna live. Let’s start a hospice unit or something. Some of these people are just on sedation to keep them on the vents. Nothing else.””
Perhaps one of the most chilling statements Sirotek made was, “We’re not treating the COVID, guys. Like, for real. We’re not treating the COVID.”
Sirotek mentions how none of these patients are properly cared for because they are minority groups. “Nobody cares because they’re all minorities, and we are in the (expletive) hood. And you know, that’s just not okay,” she states through tears. ”I grew up really poor, so I know what it’s like to be completely forgotten and for nobody to advocate for you, and that why I get really upset guys.
Whether or not these allegations are accurate and truthful warrants a thorough investigation by the proper authorities in New York.
An article published in the Elko Daily Free Press regarding her and a few other local nurses’ mission to New York states she was supposed to be making her way back to Elko, NV as of May 6th.
We made several attempts to reach out to Nicole for comment via social media as well as through her place of employment in Nevada, but none of our requests were successful. Facebook has since deleted her original video, as well as her Facebook page. Her husband’s page appears to also have been deleted.
It wasn’t clear which Hospital Sirotek had originally been sent to, or which hospital she was transferred to.
In an ominous ending to her video, Sirotek states, “Okay guys, I’m going on the new unit, let’s see how they kill them there. Stay safe, stay out of NYC for your health care.”
There has been a petition started on Change.org for calls into an investigation of hospital negligence. https://www.change.org/p/we-petition-donald-j-trump-to-launch-an-investigation-into-gross-negligence-and-complete-medical-mismanagement-of-hospitals-in-new-york-help-us-get-100-000-signatures?recruiter=13534144&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=Search%3ESAP%3EUK%3ENonBrand%3EBMM