NURSE SHARKS: Why Are These Nurses Threatening to Harm People?
Tyler O'Neil /
Across the country, nurses appear to be taking up arms—or rather, syringes—in the name of opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement or President Donald Trump.
Hospitals and authorities have quickly responded to prevent any harm, but the trend suggests nurses might seek to weaponize their profession to advance their political views.
The largest nurses’ union has called for the abolition of ICE.
Injecting ICE
On Tuesday, Virginia Commonwealth University Health announced that it fired a nurse after she released social media videos urging medical providers to use a “sabotage tactic” against ICE, preparing syringes with saline or succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant that can cause temporary partial paralysis.
“Following an investigation, the individual involved in the social media videos is no longer employed by VCU Health,” the hospital told Fox News Digital. “In addition, VCU Health has fulfilled its reporting requirements under Virginia state law.”
The hospital previously said it and VCU Police opened an investigation into the nurse.
No Anesthesia for Trump Supporters?
Erik Martindale, a registered nurse in Florida, posted on Facebook that he would deny anesthesia for “MAGA” patients, those in the Make America Great Again movement. He later deleted the post and claimed his account had been hacked.
“I will not perform anesthesia for any surgeries or procedures for MAGA,” he wrote in the now-deleted post. “It is my right, it is my ethical oath, and I stand behind my education. I own all of my businesses and I can refuse anyone!”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier alerted the Florida Board of Nursing to Martindale’s post.
Wishing Pain on Karoline Leavitt
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last month that she is pregnant with her second child.
Lexie Lawler, who worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital, posted a social media video saying, “As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear.”
The “fourth-degree tear” she mentioned refers to a painful and severe childbirth injury requiring surgical repair.
The hospital fired the nurse, saying the statements “do not reflect our values.”
“While we respect the right to personal opinions, there is no place in health care for language or behavior that calls into question a caregiver’s ability to provide compassionate, unbiased care,” a spokesperson said.
Uthmeier announced Wednesday that Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo had revoked Lawler’s nursing license.
Lawler appears unrepentant. She launched a fundraiser, claiming that she was “fired for political speech.” She has raised more than $13,000 as of Thursday afternoon.
“If you believe liberal women shouldn’t lose their livelihoods for refusing to tone it down, stand with Lexie,” the campaign states.
National Nurses United
While these cases appear disconnected, America’s largest union of nurses released a statement demanding the abolition of ICE.
National Nurses United, which claims to represent 225,000 nurses, condemned the agency following the shooting death of Alex Pretti at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents. The agents have been placed on leave amid an investigation.
“The nation’s nurses, who make it their mission to care for and save human lives, are horrified and outraged that immigration agents have once again committed cold-blooded murder of a public observer who posed no threat to them,” the union said in a statement after the shooting Saturday.
“ICE and all related immigration enforcement agencies have repeatedly shown through their violence, terror, and lawlessness that they pose a dire public health threat to the entire country and all our communities,” the union added. “Nurses demand the immediate abolition of ICE.”
The union called for a “no” vote on the homeland security appropriations bill and pledged to do “everything in our power to vote out any elected official who supports funding for this all-out assault on the health, safety, and civil rights of our people.”
Harm of Politicizing Medicine
Dr. Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer at Do No Harm, emphasized the damage that politicization poses to medicine.
“As we’ve documented at Do No Harm, if medical schools, associations, and hospitals allow radical politics to influence curricula and training, then they shouldn’t be surprised when they produce harmful activists rather than skilled medical professionals,” Miceli, a board-certified physician in psychiatry and internal medicine, told The Daily Signal in a statement Thursday.
“Health care professionals who make violent threats against government employees, political supporters, or public officials abandon the ethical core of their profession and forfeit the trust essential to practicing it,” he added. “Their conduct illustrates how deeply ideological activism has warped the culture of care.”
“Medicine must remain anchored in the duty to treat the patient, keeping politics out of the clinical encounter and rejecting any rhetoric or behavior that compromises ethical practice,” Miceli concluded. “Patients deserve care grounded in ethics, competence, and respect—not animus or politics.”