A doctor at Golisano Children’s Hospital is suing the University of Rochester, claiming she faced retaliation for calling out alleged unsafe practices in the neonatal ICU.
Dr. Olachi Mezu-Ndubuisi’s concerns included what she saw as the NICU’s overly aggressive use of fluids, ventilators and oxygen, and restrictive policies on transfusions.
“And sometimes these actions by other providers have resulted in death of infants,” she claimed in the lawsuit detailing specific cases in her 68-page federal lawsuit.
Mezu-Ndubuisi has been at the university since 2022, and is the only Black neonatologist and only Black tenured faculty in her department. She spends most of her time doing research funded by the National Institutes of Health.
She alleged that she faced added and unfair scrutiny from the start. But her suggestions for a more conservative approach to treatment initially were welcomed, according to the lawsuit. Some of the policies, including fluid management, have been changed.
It wasn’t long, though, until the workplace allegedly turned hostile.