By: Denis Cyr
A nurse who treated New York’s ‘patient zero’ for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, has sued the hospital she works at for failing to protect her from the infection., NY Post reported
According to The Post, her lawyers said that the nurse and her colleagues at the Westchester County hospital were “offered up as sacrificial lambs to be slaughtered by the COVID-19 virus.”
The nurse’s suit claims that Lawrence Garbuz, noted as the state’s first patient to be diagnosed with COVID-19, was admitted to the hospital on February 27 but wasn’t tested for the virus until five days later.
The nurse claims that while she and another nurse expressed concerns that the patient was exhibiting symptoms for the virus before he was even tested, the hospital only provided them with surgical masks to wear while on the job instead of face shields and N-95 masks.
NY Post reported: The nurse, who is anonymous in the Manhattan Supreme Court suit filed Saturday, helped care for onetime ailing lawyer Lawrence Garbuz at the Westchester County hospital after he was admitted Feb. 27, the court papers say.
TJV previously reported: The lawyer who unwittingly because Westchester’s “patient zero” has for the first time spoken in an interview. In a sit-down session with NBC News’ “Today” which aired on Monday, Lawrence Garbuz said that when doctors first examined him, there was “no mention” of the deadly novel coronavirus that has since shaken the world, shut down the country, and infected over 335,000 in NY state alone.
Garbuz had to be put into a medically induced coma. “My wife saved my life,” he said. “After we entered the emergency room, I have absolutely no recollection of anything that transpired until I woke up from the coma.” Unbeknownst to him, the novel virus spread quickly in his community, making Westchester the first coronavirus hotspot in the U.S. Gov. Andrew Cuomo even instituted a mile-radius “containment zone” around the family’s synagogue. Over 31,000 people in Westchester County have been infected, and more than 1,341 people there have died from coronavirus, as per state data. At the virus’ peak, the county was recording 30 to 40 deaths each day.
Subsequently, both the nurse and her family contracted the virus and “sustained serious, irreversible injuries as a result of her exposure to COVID-19,” according to the filing.
The suit claims that NewYork-Presbyterian failed to adhere to guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to handle patients infected with COVID-19, NY Post reported
