Today, Baby Blue Ivy Carter turns six days old, and boy what a journey it's been so far! Now that all of the boring paperwork is out of the way—what with Lenox Hill Hospital "investigated" following complaints from non-famouses that Jay-Z and Beyoncé's special treatment prevented them from seeing their non-famous babies—we can delve into the fun stuff. Like the birthing room! more ›

FINALLY, the papers are paying attention to the birth of the Most Important Baby Of All Time, or at least since baby Thom Yorke arrived in 1968: Blue Ivy Carter. There's a lot of ink spilled out there today regarding Beyoncé and Jay-Z's three-day old girl, who has already made her musical debut crying on Jay-Z's song to her, which you can listen to below. And now the happy couple has released a statement, presumably from their private birthing center, Lenox Hill Hospital: more ›

This weekend we learned two wildly famous and wealthy people used their power and money for good. Just kidding! Beyoncé and Jay-Z used their fame and fortune to rent out an entire floor of Lenox Hill Hospital, inconveniencing others that also needed access to loved ones and medical attention. The couple were there for the birth of their child, Blue Ivy, and closed off the 4th (VIP pad) and 6th (delivery suite) floors, depending on where Team Carter was at the time. Problem is: they also closed access off to parents who needed to see their own babies in the neonatal intensive-care unit. more ›

A six-month-old baby died yesterday after receiving accidental overdose of antibiotics at a Brooklyn hospital yesterday. "We love this baby. Oh, my God. It's just so messed up. His life was over in a second. I just can't believe it," cousin and caretaker Jhora Akther told the News. more ›

A deaf woman is suing a Bronx hospital, claiming that a nurse's aide inappropriately touched her under the guise of giving her a sponge bath. "When I see an ambulance with the hospital's name on it, it shakes me. I don't know when I will ever be comfortable staying overnight in a hospital," the woman says in the complaint. more ›

Gavin DeGraw was released from Bellevue Hospital last night after spending nearly two days there recuperating from his blackout drunk beatdown in the East Village early Monday morning. According to the NY Post, he was moved to NYU Hospital last night for surgery on his broken nose. DeGraw said he doesn't "remember much" from his drunken adventure, which included being beaten down be a few strangers, followed by being hit by a cab. more ›

The New York Downtown Hospital near City Hall is in bad shape, according a new report that calls the place "overwhelmed" and "chaotic." more ›

A Brooklyn woman got the livery cab ride of her life on Wednesday when her baby decided not to wait for the hospital and instead appeared at 51st Street and Seventh Avenue. Even Sweeney called a cab from Arecibo at 6 p.m., and when she got in, "I was far enough in labor that I was like 'Please lock the doors,' because I knew I was going to be stomping on them." The next thing she, her partner Inez Murray and cabbie Juan Hernandez knew, her water broke. Hernandez said, "She started screaming. I told her, 'If it has to happen here, just push!'" more ›

In New Jersey, it is illegal to keep a venomous snake as a pet unless you possess a permit stating that you have, among other things, "working knowledge and expertise in handling and caring for each of the species desired." And though he may have known how to properly care for cobras, 25-year-old Eric Bortz didn't seem to have working knowledge of his own pet. Bortz was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx after his pet albino monocled cobra bit him and he discovered that its venom sacks had not been removed, as he had been told by the dealer. more ›

While preparing to leave her New York home earlier this week, Martha Stewart leaned down to whisper a goodbye into her dog Francesca's ear—and TMZ reports it's a move that landed her in the hospital! The domestic goddess startled her French bulldog, who was sleeping at the time, and says "She bolted upright with such force that she hit me in the face like a boxing glove hitting an opponent’s face. I was entirely startled and my neck snapped back. I felt a bit of whiplash as blood gushed forth from my split lip.” Stewart had her driver bring her to the hospital, where she received nine stitches. Nothing a few cocktails won't cure! more ›

There's a turf war going on in New York's hospitals, and it's not between doctors and nurses or insurance companies and hospital staffs... it's between NY State medical schools and foreign medical schools. According to the NY Times, the sixteen NY State medical schools are waging "an aggressive campaign to persuade the State Board of Regents to make it harder, if not impossible, for foreign schools to use New York hospitals as extensions of their own campuses." more ›

New York's Finest were called to The Plaza Hotel around 2 a.m. today, according to the NY Post, to find a drunk and naked Charlie Sheen amidst his trashed hotel suite. His ex-wife, Denise Richards, had been staying in a separate room at the hotel with their two daughters, and accompanied him to a hospital. According to TMZ, Sheen was "emotionally disturbed" and voluntarily went. more ›

Carmen Ojeda, who claims a police officer blocked her from going to the hospital when her daughter was suffering from an asthma attack in her back seat, wants the officer responsible to come forward and apologize for his actions. "Show your face and say you're sorry!" she told the Daily News. "I just want you to be a man. Let her rest in peace!" more ›

The mother of an 11-year-old girl who died of an asthma attack on Friday says a man, whom she believes to be a cop, kept her from getting her daughter to a hospital. Carmen Ojeda's daughter, Briana, began suffering an asthma attack in a playground in Carroll Gardens on Friday afternoon. Ojeda, not wanting to wait for an ambulance, took off with Briana in her car, and turned down a side street to avoid traffic. The street ended up being one-way, and she either crashed into or was blocked by other cars. That's when she waved down a "marked car" and a "uniformed man" got out. more ›

In a $10 million lawsuit filed against the city, lawyer Bonita Zelman is claiming cops killed an innocent man in 2006 by ignoring a diabetes warning bracelet on his wrist, and leaving him to die in custody when he should have been taken to a hospital. Peter Fort was allegedly wrongly arrested for trespassing in a housing project in Queens, and police delayed his hospital transfer by waiting for a patrol car instead of calling an ambulance. more ›

In the days since the official closing of St. Vincent's hospital, locals have transformed the shuttered doors into a shrine to the former West Village institution. The doors are adorned with poetry, notes, drawings, and even a dedication to "the crooks complicit in the murder of this hospital and the politicians who turned their backs." Many just recall their time spent in St. Vincent's. The hospital officially closed on April 30th after being open for 160 years. more ›

Yesterday's closing of St. Vincent's hospital could put an end to home births in the city, as 22 midwives—seven of whom practiced home births—were left without a hospital. According to state law, midwives must partner with a doctor or hospital to practice, and St. Vincent's was the only hospital in the city that supported home births. One expectant mother told the Daily News, "Home birth is what I want. I don't even know what my options are now." more ›

St. Vincent's hospital officially closed at 8 a.m. today after a morning mass in the hospital chapel and a barbecue in the cafeteria. The closing has left 3,500 workers out of jobs and with few new prospects. One 56-year-old EMT told the Daily News, "This is a young man or young woman's job. I don't know what I'll do next." The workers are also worried about the health of the neighborhood. Ambulances have already been diverted across town to Beth Israel for many emergencies, and the FDNY said they would boost ambulance coverage by 15% on the West Side, but former employees say the services are still stretched too thin. more ›

Yesterday, hundreds of people protested the closing of St. Vincent's, the Greenwich Village hospital whose financial troubles have caused its downfall. They carried a coffin that said "No ER = DOA" from 25th Street and 9th Avenue to the hospital at 7th Avenue and 12th Street while demonstrators said, "Many people are going to die because of this," and "Save our hospital!" while recounting how the hospital saved their lives. more ›

Now that St. Vincent's hospital has delivered its last baby and is closing for good, displaced Greenwich Village patients have been flooding Beth Israel hospital across town. According to the Daily News, Beth Israel has seen a 25% increase in walk-in patients in the week since St. Vincent's shut down, and daily admissions are at an all time high. Beth Israel also got hit with twice their average number of ambulances two days after St. Vincent's stopped accepting them. more ›

St. Vincent's Hospital, which is winding down its operations before it closes for good, delivered its last baby. Abigail Jancu was born at 4:58 a.m. yesterday morning, about 18 hours after parents Anastasia and Robert Juncu checked into the hospital. Their midwife called to let them know they would need to come on Wednesday at 9 a.m. to deliver the baby. Robert Jancu told City Room, "They said, if you come here early in the morning, we’ll get you in, but we’re closing down." more ›

Yesterday, St. Vincent's Hospital announced, "We have issued termination (WARN) notices to all employees of St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan today as required by state and federal law. The action came after the Board of Saint Vincent’s voted to close the hospital’s inpatient services and to seek a transfer of some or all of the outpatient services, after an effort to save the financially troubled 160-year old institution. Employees jobs will end based upon the needs of the hospital as it moves forward with an orderly and safe wind down of operations. The Board and management are extremely grateful for the dedication and professionalism of all St. Vincent employees, some of whom have been with us for decades, during this very difficult process." more ›

The demise of Greenwich Village hospital St. Vincent's is forcing many patients to scramble for new facilities. And one group of patients—pregnant women—is having a tough time as their due dates draw nearer Carline Moise, who is 8 months along, told the Post that she "was handed her medical chart -- along with recommendations for a new obstetrician -- and shown the door last week." Her doctor doesn't have privileges at another hospital, so now she has "no choice. I'm going to shop around," (so far, no doctors/hospitals have agreed to take her on). And did you know that St. Vincent's ER treated survivors of the Titanic? more ›

Yesterday, St. Vincent's announced that starting today, "St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan emergency department, in coordination with the NYS Department of Health and FDNY EMS, will be placed on permanent diversion of ambulances for all services except for behavioral health. The ED will remain fully functional with the ability to treat and admit all walk-in patients as needed.” Instead, ambulances will take patients to Beth-Israel, Roosevelt, NY Downtown or Bellevue. more ›

After St. Vincent's announced it would close its Greenwich Village location, there are hopes that some of its services will still exist. The Daily News reports, "At least two health care companies - Mount Sinai Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners, which operates Beth Israel - are still in talks to take over the emergency department and crucial community clinics. 'There are still health care facilities interested,' an insider told the Daily News. 'That part of the hospital is not dead yet, but it's not out of the woods, either.'" more ›

Officer Robert Salerno, who was shot three times at close range in a Bronx "ambush," was released from the hospital yesterday. Though his kevlar vest protected him from a shot to the chest, he was shot twice in the lower torso by 57-year-old Santiago Urena, who had just pulled a gun on a home health aide who rejected his romantic advances. He was released from Lincoln Hospital after being treated for nerve damage in his hip and leg. Salerno's mother told the Post, "It’s a very good day." more ›

Yesterday, Mt. Sinai announced that it would not enter a partnership with the struggling St. Vincent's Hospital, leading St. Vincent's to say, "Our board will be in discussions with our management, legal and financial advisers to quickly access our strategic options moving forward." The NY Times reports that the hospital had been set to declare bankruptcy last month, but emergency loans from the state and GE helped keep it afloat as it tried to find a partner. But now, "The hospital, which is running at a deficit of $7 million to $10 million a month, has spent nearly all that money, and with Albany deep in its own financial trouble, more state money is unlikely, people close to the process said on Thursday." more ›

In NY and elsewhere Christian science leaders say they're encouraging followers to go see a doctor in grave medical emergencies, despite the religion's century-old conviction in the evils of modern medicine. “In the last year, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called to pray at a patient’s bedside in a hospital,” national spokesman Phillip Davis told the Times, speaking from NY headquarters in midtown. more ›

Feds have busted a Park Slope anesthesiologist accused of writing Adderall prescriptions for phony patients, who filled them and sold the study drug on the streets. The doctor, Michael Hosny Gabriel, may have used his profits to fund a gambling habit. He “carried large sums of cash to Atlantic City” one informant told the Feds, adding that the medical man kept a gun in his bedroom. And though Dr. Gabriel was the Adderall ring's kingpin, he had help: the Daily News says other doctors at his Brooklyn hospital are also implicated in the case. more ›

In what's beginning to look like life support, St. Vincent's Hospital is getting another $6 million bail out from the state and banks. This time GE Capital and TD Bank have offered $5 million with the State Assembly chipping in another $1 million, says Gov. Paterson's office. Once again the Greenwich Village medical facility has been given a month to restructure its $700 million debt and look for a solution, but since the last cash infusion it hasn't come up with much: "They're not exactly sure how that's going to happen at this point, but I think they are working very hard," Randi Hoffman, spokesperson for the New York State Nurses Association told WNYC. Already the hospital has laid off 300 employees and handed pay cuts to the rest. more ›