Mount Sinai Hospital Data Breach (2015)

Allegations that a nurse at a major Chicago hospital tweeted about a shooting victim's death and blood-soaked hospital room are a stunning cautionary tale that health care providers can use to hammer home how workers may be held liable for privacy lapses, attorneys say. The allegations surfaced in a new lawsuit accusing Karrie Anne Runtz, a trauma nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital, of "recklessly and outrageously" tweeting about the April 2015 death of 24-year-old Mikal Johnson. According to the suit, Runtz sent tweets to 1,300 followers describing Johnson as "DOA" and included a grisly photograph of a large pool of blood in his treatment room. The now-deleted Twitter account, which was known to local media, used the screename "Dixie McCall," the handle @traumanatrix and the hashtags #sinaitrauma and #westsideshitshow to complain about a steady stream of patients with bullet wounds in Mount Sinai's emergency department. The account's bio section read, "diva of death..mistress of mayhem. kicking ass, taking names & saving lives. tough as nails chicago chick. you think you know, but you have no idea."