Recent findings have revealed a horrifying truth about the standard of healthcare in New York City hospitals. During the last five years, 468 people died in the city’s 11 public hospitals due to medical malpractice and negligence.
New York City witnessed 88 fatalities caused by fires in 2018 alone, according to FDNY Commissioner, Daniel Nigro. The figure is the highest recorded for any year in the last decade, with only 2007 reporting more fire-related deaths of 95.
The number of deaths caused by fires was about 73 in 2017. In 2016, only 48 fire-related deaths happened in NYC, which was the lowest recorded in a hundred years. Nigro termed the surge in the number as a ‘concerning development’ while testifying before the New York City Council’s Committee on Fire and Emergency Management about the $2.1 billion FDNY budget.
A former Manhattan student was awarded around $60 million in 2019 as compensation for a 2014 incident where the student suffered agonizing burns during a chemistry-class’ nitrate demonstration experiment. The judge upheld the jury’s verdict of $60 million in pain and suffering damages to the victim, the now 21-year-old Alonzo Yanes. The student was 16-year-old and in 10th grade at the time of the horrifying accident at the Beacon High School.
Lucia Ferreira, 24, won $1 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against a Brooklyn hospital in 2006 for her first child’s death during delivery in 1997. Ferreira and her husband were excitedly awaiting the birth of their first child – a daughter. She was seven months pregnant when she went into rapid labor at home on July 1, 1997.
Unfortunately, complications arose as the baby ended up in a footling breech position, with her head stuck in the birth canal. The baby asphyxiated as she was receiving no blood or oxygen through the umbilical cord and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
A young boy was killed in a road accident in Brooklyn in Feb. 2020; the second traffic accident involving a child’s death in three days. On Feb. 27, 2020, at around 8:30 am, an SUV hit seven-year-old Payson Lott and his mother while they were walking on a crosswalk at the Blake and Pennsylvania Avenues intersection in Brooklyn. The shocking incident occurred only two days after a 10-year-old girl was hit and killed by a school bus in the same area.
Video footage of the event showed how the silver Jeep Cherokee driver turned right at the intersection and slammed into Payson, without stopping. Crossing guards were finally stationed at the intersection only after the two incidents in a row. Many residents of the area believe it is criminally overdue, given its proximity to a school.
