Helayne Seidman
A Manhattan elementary college teacher unwittingly stabbed herself with an epinephrine-loaded needle that she thought was a faux EpiPen during a training session with a nurse at her college, a brand new suit alleges.
Rene Minnocci, who works at The Equity Project Charter School in Inwood, says a metropolis well being division nurse got here in to coach lecturers Aug. 19, 2021 on the right way to administer epinephrine to college students during emergencies, in keeping with her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Monday.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene nurse handed Minnocci a “loaded Epipen”— as an alternative of the meant faux training one — telling her to jab herself within the thigh, the suit says.
The 29-year-old teacher did so, discovering she had used an precise needle and had punctured her leg, the suit and her lawyer mentioned.
“She said ‘Ouch,’” Minnocci’s lawyer Edward Lemmo informed The Post. “She felt throbbing in her leg and saw a hole in her pants and [the throbbing] just got worse as the day went by.”
Lemmo defined that Minnocci needed to go to the Emergency Room that day and he or she would ultimately search assist from a neurologist due to numbness, tingling and ache in her leg that wouldn’t go away.
Now, Minnocci has to take a powerful ache medicine and has issues standing and strolling after she was identified with a nerve damage, Lemmo mentioned.
More testing nonetheless needs to be performed, Lemmo mentioned.
Minnocci is suing the town, the Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene and nurse Esther — whose final title is unknown, in keeping with the suit.
Minnocci’s different lawyer Matthew Haicken informed The Post she isn’t alleging any wrongdoing towards her college.
“Our claim is that she wasn’t given proper training,” Lemmo mentioned. “She was negligently given a live EpiPen with a needle, where the other teachers were not. This was a totally preventable accident.”
Haicken added, “We want to make sure this doesn’t happen to other innocent teachers.”
A rep with the well being division mentioned, “We are unable to comment because of ongoing litigation.”
