Health
Some nurses experience violent attacks at Seattle Children’s Hospital, say they want protection, support
Some nurses at Seattle Children’s Hospital say they feel unsafe at work and have demanded protection.
Police responded to multiple violent incidents in November at the hospital’s Psychiatric and Behavioral Medicine Unit (PBMU), according to the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA), which represents over 2,000 registered nurses in the state.
On Nov. 7, police were called when patients “turned over carts, used a pole to swing at people, broke windows and held a nurse in a chokehold,” a WSNA press release stated.
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The Seattle Police Department detailed that incident in a blog post on its website the next day, noting that a 14-year-old boy was arrested for assaulting medical staff in the psychiatry and behavioral medicine unit of the hospital.
“The suspect … armed himself with a metal pole, began destroying property and attempted to locate and harm another teen,” the police department’s blog post said. “The suspect then attacked a staff member and put them in a headlock.”
Police responded in November 2023 to multiple violent incidents in the Psychiatric and Behavioral Medicine Unit, according to the Washington State Nurses Association. (Seattle Children’s Hospital/iStock)
Around that same time period, a nurse was “choked, struck in the head 16 times and nearly lost consciousness” after an attack by a patient, according to the WSNA.
On Nov. 17, police reportedly returned to the hospital after patients began throwing ceiling tiles at staff members.
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Some other complaints filed by nurses within the unit were about patients biting staff members, kicking them in the head and attempting to use medical equipment as weapons, the WSNA stated.
“As staff, we know what we need, and that’s security,” Natasha Vederoff, one of the nurses in the unit, told Fox News Digital in a recent video interview.
“We’re asking for people to help our staff feel safe, so that we can do our job and get fair compensation for the work we’re doing,” she said.
Regular staffing shortages have contributed to problems, say nurses at Seattle Children’s Hospital (not pictured). They say capacity has been strained ever since the onset of COVID-19. (iStock)
After Fox News Digital contacted the hospital for comment, a Seattle Children’s Hospital spokesperson sent a statement.
“Our country is facing an escalating youth mental and behavioral health crisis and the demand for services remains alarmingly high,” the Dec. 5 statement to Fox News Digital noted in part.
“This is not a temporary issue. We’re asking for permanent change because the problem is not going to go away anytime soon.”
“The safety, security and well-being of Seattle Children’s patients and workforce is our top priority and we have intensified efforts over the past several months to address this demand.”
The statement went on, “While these critical steps support the immediate safety of our workforce and patients, Seattle Children’s cannot solve this crisis alone.”
“Our country is facing an escalating youth mental and behavioral health crisis and the demand for services remains alarmingly high,” Seattle Children’s Hospital said in a statement sent to Fox News Digital. The exterior of the building is shown above. (Seattle Children’s Hospital)
“This work is ongoing, and we are actively collaborating with external partners at the local, state and federal level to identify and eliminate barriers and find rapid solutions to address the extremely high number of patients seeking care for mental and behavioral health crises across the state.”
‘Vicious cycle’
Regular staffing shortages have been a challenge for some time in psychiatric care, noted Amy Lamson, who has worked in the unit for more than six years — but the problem got much worse during the COVID pandemic, she said.
“We have not been able to catch up in any capacity since then,” she told Fox News Digital in an interview.
One of the factors contributing to the current crisis is the extended time frame of patient stays, the Washington-based nurses said. (iStock)
“It has been a vicious cycle,” Lamson continued. “The less staff we have, the less expertise we have on the floor, and the less able we are to manage unsafe behaviors — and then staff want to leave because they do not feel safe in the workplace.”
There are conflicting statements about the nature of the current nursing shortage.
In a 2022 letter, the American Hospital Association estimated that half a million nurses would leave the field by the end of that year, which would result in a total country-wide shortage of 1.1 million.
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National Nurses United (NNU), however, has released statements that there is not a shortage of nurses — and that, instead, the problem is “a failure by hospital industry executives to put nurses and the patients they care for above corporate profits.”
While there are plenty of nurses to fill jobs, NNU stated that there is “a shortage of nurses who want to work under current conditions.”
Demand outpaces capacity, nurses say
Contributing to the crisis is the extended stay of many patients today, the nurses said.
The hospital’s Psychiatric and Behavioral Medicine Unit is intended to serve as “short-term crisis stabilization” for three to seven days, but nurses report that some children are staying on the unit for months — or even as long as a year — due to a shortage of residential care beds.
Lamson told Fox News Digital that the increase in injuries began to worsen during COVID, when many outpatient beds and residential facilities closed.
“We’re asking for people to help our staff feel safe, so we can do our job and get fair compensation for the work we’re doing,” one of the nurses (not pictured) told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“With fewer resources in the community for these patients, there are longer inpatient stays,” she said.
Over the last year, there has been an “exponential increase” in safety events and staff injuries, said Lamson.
Henry Jones, another nurse in the unit, noted that a third of the long-term residential beds in the state have closed since the pandemic, and demand has only gone up.
“It’s simple supply and demand — the demand far outstrips our capacity to provide care.”
“It’s simple supply and demand,” Jones told Fox News Digital. “The demand far outstrips our capacity to provide care.”
Jones said he doesn’t believe the staff would be seeing this level of aggression and violence if the patients’ length of stay matched the design of the unit.
“The more isolated you are, the more likely you are to use aggression,” he told Fox News Digital.
Brayden Schander, another nurse on the unit, told WSNA that the nurses have been forced into this situation.
“If the state and nation are not going to change, Seattle Children’s needs to build a residential facility to meet long-term care needs.”
Jones told Fox News Digital, “This is not a temporary issue. We’re asking for permanent change because the problem is not going away anytime soon.”
Patients are not to blame, nurses say
The nurses in the PBMU emphasized that the troubled youth in the facility are not to blame for the current crisis.
“Our patients have suffered severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse,” Joshua Pickett, a registered nurse at Seattle Children’s, told Fox News Digital.
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The nursing staff expects to see certain unsafe behaviors, he noted, as it’s an “expression of pain” and a way for the young people to communicate their needs.
“We don’t want to demonize these behaviors — the reason we are so invested is because we want to help these kids,” he said.
But “our ability to address unsafe behaviors would be greatly increased if we just had adequate resources to do so,” he also said.
The nurses in the PBMU at Seattle Children’s emphasized that the troubled young people (not pictured) are not to blame for the current crisis. (iStock)
During one of her recent shifts, Vederoff said she had to help hold down a potentially violent child.
“I had to stop myself from crying … knowing that this kid would not be in the situation right now if they had the resources they needed — and knowing that we have failed them.”
Pickett agreed, adding, “All too often, rather than healing the trauma that these kids have faced, we’re just retraumatizing them in order to keep people safe rather than creating an environment that is therapeutic and helpful for them.”
Call for action
Pickett sent a call for action to the hospital’s leadership team on Nov. 17 on behalf of the 44 nurses in the unit.
In the letter, which was shared with Fox News Digital by the WSNA, the nurses described the unit as “severely unsafe” and at a “critical point of failure.”
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“The ongoing deficient and inadequate intervention from the hospital has contributed to innumerable injuries, a diminishing workforce and deteriorating morale,” the letter stated.
“Staff work in a persistent state of fear as they come into each shift expecting violence and debilitating abuse.”
The letter went on, “The level of violence that the unit is expected to tolerate has directly influenced rates of staff turnover and pushed the unit into a detrimental staffing crisis.”
“Our hospital is a lens into what is happening nationally,” said one of the nurses (not pictured) in the unit at the Seattle-based hospital. (iStock)
To ensure the safety of staff and patients, the nurses made several specific demands of Seattle Children’s Hospital, which included:
- Three safety officers present during the day and one overnight
- Additional staffing roles, including a break nurse, resource nurse and safety coach
- Maximum ratio of eight patients to every one nurse
- Double pay for all overtime and mandatory shifts
“Let us not wait for the preventable death of a patient or staff to have our voices heard,” the letter from the nurses said.
“Rather than healing the trauma that these kids have faced, we’re just retraumatizing them in order to keep people safe.”
On Dec. 13, the Washington State Nurses Association, plus some of the nurses from the PBMU and Seattle Children’s leadership, met to discuss the status of the actions and interventions that are in progress.
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Pickett shared with Fox News Digital some of the outcomes of that meeting.
“Mandatory overtime and volunteering to stay over are now both double pay,” he said. “Security will be a permanent fixture on the PBMU and a new role will be created and rolled out by the first week of February.”
“This is a national mental health crisis, and our patients have suffered severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse,” said one of the nurses in an interview with Fox News Digital. (Tetra Images via Getty Images)
Hospital leadership also committed to hiring travel BHTs (behavioral health technicians) and RNs to fill current roles in the PBMU, but Pickett said they are “refusing to create the new nursing and PMHS (pediatric primary care mental health specialist) roles we requested, which were essential to our demands.”
“Let us not wait for the preventable death of a patient or staff to have our voices heard.”
Seattle Children’s Hospital also provided an update to Fox News Digital regarding the Dec. 13 meeting.
“Last month, Seattle Children’s opened an Emergency Operations Center in response to extraordinarily high mental health patient volume,” a spokesperson said.
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“Since then, countless teams and individuals have collaborated to develop new processes and implement operational improvements.”
“As a result, Seattle Children’s is better positioned to meet future surges and care for all patients who need us, but the work is ongoing,” the statement continued.
“I could make the same amount of money [in another job] and not be hit every day, but I care about this work.”
“Seattle Children’s — particularly the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Unit (PBMU), emergency department (ED) and the groups that support them — is still experiencing the impacts of the national youth mental health crisis. Leaders across the organization will continue to support our workforce, patients and families by listening, advocating and championing youth mental health.”
The American Hospital Association estimated over a year ago, in 2022, that half a million nurses would leave the field by the end of the year, which would result in a total country-wide shortage of 1.1 million nursing professionals. (iStock)
The nurses agree that this is a national crisis.
“Our hospital is a lens into what is happening nationally,” said Pickett.
They believe, however, that steps can be taken at the same time to remedy the safety issues at Seattle Children’s.
“I could make the same amount of money [in another job] and not be hit every day, but I care about this work,” said Vederoff.
“I just want my leadership and my managers in this hospital to show that they value this work, too, and they value me.”
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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Artificial intelligence has been touted as a boon to healthcare, but a new study has revealed its potential shortcomings when it comes to giving medical advice.
In January, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the medical-focused version of the popular chatbot tool.
The company introduced the tool as “a dedicated experience that securely brings your health information and ChatGPT’s intelligence together, to help you feel more informed, prepared and confident navigating your health.”
But researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that the tool failed to recommend emergency care for a “significant number” of serious medical cases.
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Feb. 23, aimed to explore how ChatGPT Health — which is reported to have about 40 million users daily — handles situations where people are asking whether to seek emergency care.
Artificial intelligence has been touted as a boon to healthcare, but a new study has revealed its potential shortcomings when it comes to giving medical advice. (iStock)
“Right now, no independent body evaluates these products before they reach the public,” lead author Ashwin Ramaswamy, M.D., instructor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told Fox News Digital.
“We wouldn’t accept that for a medication or a medical device, and we shouldn’t accept it for a product that tens of millions of people are using to make health decisions.”
Emergency scenarios
The team created 60 clinical scenarios across 21 medical specialties, ranging from minor conditions to true medical emergencies.
Three independent physicians then assigned an appropriate level of urgency for each case, based on published clinical practice guidelines in 56 medical societies.
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The researchers conducted 960 interactions with ChatGPT Health to see how the tool responded, taking into account gender, race, barriers to care and “social dynamics.”
While “clear-cut emergencies” — such as stroke or severe allergy — were generally handled well, the researchers found that the tool “under-triaged” many urgent medical issues.
The team created 60 clinical scenarios across 21 medical specialties, ranging from minor conditions to true medical emergencies. (iStock)
For example, in one asthma scenario, the system acknowledged that the patient was showing early signs of respiratory failure — but still recommended waiting instead of seeking emergency care.
“ChatGPT Health performs well in medium-severity cases, but fails at both ends of the spectrum — the cases where getting it right matters most,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital. “It under-triaged over half of genuine emergencies and over-triaged roughly two-thirds of mild cases that clinical guidelines say should be managed at home.”
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Under-triage can be life-threatening, the doctor noted, while over-triage can overwhelm emergency departments and delay care for those in real need.
Researchers also identified inconsistencies in suicide risk alerts. In some cases, it directed users to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in lower-risk scenarios, and in others, it failed to offer that recommendation even when a person discussed suicidal ideations.
“ChatGPT Health performs well in medium-severity cases, but fails at both ends of the spectrum.”
“The suicide guardrail failure was the most alarming,” study co-author Girish N. Nadkarni, M.D., chief AI officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, told Fox News Digital.
ChatGPT Health is designed to show a crisis intervention banner when someone describes thoughts of self-harm, the researcher noted.
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the medical-focused version of the popular chatbot tool, in January 2026. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We tested it with a 27-year-old patient who said he’d been thinking about taking a lot of pills,” Nadkarni said. “When he described his symptoms alone, the banner appeared 100% of the time. Then we added normal lab results — same patient, same words, same severity — and the banner vanished.”
“A safety feature that works perfectly in one context and completely fails in a nearly identical context … is a fundamental safety problem.”
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The researchers were also surprised by the social influence aspect.
“When a family member in the scenario said ‘it’s nothing serious’ — which happens all the time in real life — the system became nearly 12 times more likely to downplay the patient’s symptoms,” Nadkarni said. “Everyone has a spouse or parent who tells them they’re overreacting. The AI shouldn’t be agreeing with them during a potential emergency.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Open AI, creator of ChatGPT, requesting comment.
Physicians react
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, called the new study “important.”
“It underlines the principle that while large language models can triage clear-cut emergencies, they have much more trouble with nuanced situations,” Siegel, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
ChatGPT and other LLMs can be helpful tools, a doctor said, but they “should not be used to give medical direction.” (iStock)
“This is where doctors and clinical judgment come in — knowing the nuances of a patient’s history and how they report symptoms and their approach to health.”
ChatGPT and other LLMs can be helpful tools, Siegel said, but they “should not be used to give medical direction.”
“Machine learning and continued input of data can help, but will never compensate for the essential problem – human judgment is needed to decide whether something is a true emergency or not.”
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Dr. Harvey Castro, an emergency physician and AI expert in Texas, echoed the importance of the study, calling it “exactly the kind of independent safety evaluation we need.”
“Innovation moves fast. Oversight has to move just as fast,” Castro, who also did not work on the study, told Fox News Digital. “In healthcare, the most dangerous mistakes happen at the extremes, when something looks mild but is actually catastrophic. That’s where clinical judgment matters most, and where AI must be stress-tested.”
Study limitations
The researchers acknowledged some potential limitations in the study design.
“We used physician-written clinical scenarios rather than real patient conversations, and we tested at a single point in time — these systems update frequently, so performance may change,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital.
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Additionally, most of the missed emergencies happened in situations where the danger depended on how the condition was changing over time. It’s not clear whether the same problem would happen with acute medical emergencies.
Because the system had to choose just one fixed urgency category, the test may not reflect the more nuanced advice it might give in a back-and-forth conversation, the researchers noted.
ChatGPT Health is designed to show a crisis intervention banner when someone describes thoughts of self-harm. (iStock)
Also, the study wasn’t large enough to confidently detect small differences in how recommendations might vary by race or gender.
“We need continuous auditing, not one-time studies,” Castro noted. “These systems update frequently, so evaluation must be ongoing.”
‘Don’t wait’
The researchers emphasized the importance of seeking immediate care for serious issues.
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“If something feels seriously wrong — chest pain, difficulty breathing, a severe allergic reaction, thoughts of self-harm — go to the emergency department or call 988,” Ramaswamy advised. “Don’t wait for an AI to tell you it’s OK.”
The researchers noted that they support the use of AI to improve healthcare access, and that they didn’t conduct the study to “tear down the technology.”
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“These tools can be genuinely useful for the right things — understanding a diagnosis you’ve already received, looking up what your medications do and their side effects, or getting answers to questions that didn’t get fully addressed in a short doctor’s visit,” Ramaswamy said.
“That’s a very different use case from deciding whether you need emergency care. Treat them as a complement to your doctor, not a replacement.”
“This study doesn’t mean we abandon AI in healthcare.”
Castro agreed that the benefits of AI health tools should be weighed against the risks.
“AI health tools can increase access, reduce unnecessary visits and empower patients with information,” he said. “They are not inherently unsafe, but they are not yet substitutes for clinical judgment.”
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“This study doesn’t mean we abandon AI in healthcare,” he went on. “It means we mature it. Independent testing and stronger guardrails will determine whether AI becomes a safety net or a liability.”
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Americans consume foods every day that are marketed as “healthy,” when they could be quietly destroying their health, one doctor warns.
Dr. Mark Hyman, physician and co-founder of Function Health in California, says that much of America’s daily diet is filled with unhealthy ingredients.
“The amount of refined starches and sugars that are everywhere is just staggering to me, given what we know about how harmful they are,” he shared in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I don’t think people really understand.”
Hyman, author of the new book “Food Fix Uncensored,” said he’s “astounded” by what people are eating, especially for breakfast.
“People just eat sugar for breakfast,” he said. “They have muffins, they have bagels, they have croissants, they have sugar-sweetened coffees and teas.”
Dr. Mark Hyman is the author of the new book “Food Fix Uncensored.” (Function Health; Little, Brown Spark)
In addition to the traditionally sweet options for breakfast, some cereal brands and breakfast staples have adopted new “protein-packed” menu items and products, following health trends that encourage eating more protein.
“Highly processed food is not food.”
“Now, we’re seeing this halo of protein in certain things,” Hyman said, mentioning that many protein smoothies are “full of sugar.”
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The doctor also noted that some popular cereals are now marketed as having protein in them. “My joke is, if it has a health claim on the label, it’s definitely bad for you,” he said.
Instead of starting the day with a “quick fix” or processed food, Hyman suggests choosing whole sources of protein and fat for breakfast, adding that “if there’s a little carbohydrate in there, it’s fine.”
More products marketed as “high protein” have cropped up on supermarket shelves. (iStock)
For his own breakfast, Hyman said he has a protein shake with whey protein, avocado and frozen berries. Eggs and avocados are also a great protein-and-fat combo option, he added.
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“It’s not that complicated — people need to just think about their breakfast not being dessert,” he said. “No wonder we’re in this cycle of obesity and diabetes. One in three teenage kids now has type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. That’s just criminal.”
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Instead of counting calories and being in a caloric deficit as a way to lose weight and stay healthy, Hyman instead suggests focusing on how certain foods make you feel and how they impact your health.
“When you look at the way in which different types of calories affect your biology, you can just choose what you’re eating, and then you don’t have to worry about how much,” he told Fox News Digital.
In addition to the traditionally sweet options for breakfast, some cereal brands and breakfast staples have adopted new “protein-packed” menu items and products. (iStock)
“For example, if you eat a diet that doesn’t cause your insulin to spike — which is low in starch and sugar, higher in protein and fat — you won’t develop those swings in blood sugar, you won’t develop the spikes in insulin, you won’t deposit hungry fat … You will break that cycle.”
People are more likely to “self-regulate when they eat real food” instead of processed foods, which “bypasses the normal mechanisms of satiety, fullness and brain chemistry,” according to Hyman.
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“Ultraprocessed food and junk food or highly processed food is not food,” he said. “It doesn’t support the health and well-being of an organism. It doesn’t do that. It does the opposite.”
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Small fragments of plastic were found in the tumors of most prostate cancer patients, according to a new study from NYU Langone Health.
In past studies, microplastics have been found in almost every human organ and in bodily fluids, but their impact on human health still isn’t fully understood.
The researchers analyzed tissue samples from 10 patients with prostate cancer who underwent surgery to remove the entire organ.
Using visuals of both benign samples and tumor samples, as well as specialized equipment, the scientists identified plastic particles in 90% of the tumor samples and 70% of benign tissue samples, according to the study press release.
In past studies, microplastics were found in almost every single human organ along with bodily fluids, even the placenta. (iStock)
The cancerous tissue contained on average more than double the amount of plastic as healthy prostate tissue samples, the study found. This equates to about 40 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue compared to 16 micrograms.
Researchers avoided contaminating the samples with other plastics by substituting standard tools with those made of aluminum, cotton and other non-plastic material, the release noted.
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The scientists say this is the first direct evidence linking microplastics to prostate cancer.
“By uncovering yet another potential health concern posed by plastic, our findings highlight the need for stricter regulatory measures to limit the public’s exposure to these substances, which are everywhere in the environment,” said senior study author Vittorio Albergamo, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in the release.
Using visuals of both benign samples and tumor samples, as well as specialized equipment, the scientists identified plastic particles in 90% of the tumor samples and 70% of benign tissue samples. (iStock)
The study findings were presented during the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco on Feb. 26.
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“What is most striking is not that microplastics were detected, but that they were found embedded within tumor tissue itself,” Dr. David Sidransky, oncologist and medical advisor at SpotitEarly, a startup that offers an at-home breath-based test to detect early-stage cancer, told Fox News Digital.
“While complete avoidance is unrealistic, people can take practical steps to reduce exposure.”
“We already know microplastics are present in water, air, blood and even placental tissue. Their detection in prostate tumors suggests systemic distribution and long-term bioaccumulation,” added Maryland-based Sidransky, who was not involved in the study.
Study limitations
Albergamo cautioned that a larger sample is needed to confirm the findings. Additionally, Sidransky noted that the presence of microplastics alone does not prove they cause cancer.
“Tumors can act as ‘biologic sinks,’ meaning they may accumulate circulating particles simply because of altered vasculature and permeability,” he said.
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A key unanswered question, according to the doctor, is whether microplastics are biologically active in ways that “promote DNA damage, immune modulation or chronic inflammation within the prostate.”
About one in eight men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The most actionable step men can take is appropriate screening and early detection, according to doctors. (iStock)
For those concerned about microplastics, Sidransky offered some insights.
“I believe the appropriate response is curiosity, not panic, and a commitment to understand more,” he said.
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“While complete avoidance is unrealistic, people can take practical steps to reduce exposure, such as minimizing heating food in plastic containers, reducing bottled water consumption when possible, and favoring glass or stainless steel alternatives.”
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The most actionable step men can take, however, is getting appropriate screenings to help ensure early detection, according to the doctor. Screening discussions should be individualized based on age, family history and other risk factors.
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