Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida has reportedly sacked a nurse after sharing graphic images of a baby with a congenital disability on social media. According to a local TV station, the nurse, Sierra Samuels, was fired on Thursday from the hospital for sharing photos of a baby with a painful condition where the intestines move outside of the body on Instagram.
Per the TV station, Sierra took two photos of her with the baby from inside the NICU earlier this month and shared them on her Instagram story. She captioned the first photo: “My night was going great then boom!” And the second: “Your intestines ‘posed to be inside not outside baby,” including the hashtag “gastroschisis.”
Gastroschisis, according to the CDC, is a congenital disorder that occurs early during pregnancy when the muscles that make up the baby’s abdominal wall do not form properly. As a result, the baby’s intestines exit through a hole beside the belly button and appear outside the body.
“As soon as we learned of this potential breach, we immediately placed this employee under administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Protecting the privacy of our patients is always a top priority at Jackson Health System. Any potential privacy breach is taken seriously and thoroughly investigated,” a spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement.
Samuels has been working at the hospital since 2016. Moreover, the hospital notified the child’s mother of the violation of privacy. WFOR reports.
