NY St. Luke's Hospital quietly shut down pediatric unit

St. Luke's Hospital quietly shut down its pediatric unit during Hurricane Sandy—using the storm as an excuse to shutter a ward used by low-income families, nurses charge. The facility, on Amsterdam Avenue and 114th Street in Morningside Heights, closed the kids' wing to accommodate more adults after downtown hospitals lost power during the October storm and evacuated patients. But the unit never reopened, and sick kids needing long-term care are now being shuttled to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital 50 blocks north or Mount Sinai Hospital on the Upper East Side, about 20 blocks away.