In a lawsuit filed in Nassau County Supreme Court on Friday, April 28, Northwell Health claims former mortuary attendant Quantaise Sharpton was fired after 45 days for posting “creepy” photos and videos of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center mortuary.
The Brooklyn resident was hired in December 2022 to receive and release the remains of the deceased, transport the bodies to the morgue, and clean and organize the autopsy room, according to the hospital.
The hospital said her job did not require her to perform an autopsy.
In March 2023, another Northwell employee reported to their supervisor that Sharpton posted video of an autopsy performed at the facility on her personal Instagram and TikTok accounts, the lawsuit said.
The videos, often labeled “autopsy shells,” depict late-stage stillbirths, internal organs and amputated body parts, according to reports.
Music was also superimposed on some of the videos, including one showing Sharpton in the morgue and the title “Obsessed with autopsies.”
In another video of a potentially cancerous uterine specimen, Sharpton reportedly asked her 20,000 followers, “What would you like to see?”
When hospital administrators confronted Sharpton about her posts, she told them she was a social media influencer and was earning monthly income from what she described as “content,” the lawsuit said. She was fired the same day.
“Sharpton expressed no remorse or regret for her actions,” the lawsuit reads.
She agreed to delete the photos and videos from her social media platforms and phone, but has since reposted the “offensive images,” the hospital said.
As of the time the lawsuit was filed, the images were still posted online, despite Northwell submitting “removal requests” to Instagram and TikTok.
“Not only did Sharpton not have permission to take these photos or videos – let alone post them on her social media platforms – but Sharpton’s actions constituted a flagrant breach of her obligations to Northwell and amounted to a common law tort,” Northwell Health said in its statement. litigation.
The hospital wants the judge to bar Sharpton from posting, sharing or otherwise using any photos or videos taken at the facility’s mortuary and to order her to permanently delete the images.
It is also seeking compensatory damages of an unspecified amount.
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