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In a lawsuit filed in Nassau County Supreme Court on Friday, April 28, Northwell Health claims that former morgue attendant Quantaise Sharpton was fired after 45 days for posting “macabre” photos and videos from the morgue of Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
According to the hospital, the Brooklyn resident was hired in December 2022 and was tasked with receiving and releasing bodies of the deceased, transporting bodies through the morgue, and cleaning and organizing the autopsy suite.
Her job did not entail performing the autopsies themselves, the hospital said.
In March 2023, another Northwell employee went to their supervisor to report that Sharpton was posting videos of autopsies performed at the facility on her personal Instagram and TikTok accounts, according to the lawsuit.
The videos, often accompanied by the hashtag “Autopsy Bae,” reportedly depicted a late stillbirth, internal organs, and amputated body parts.
Some videos were also overlaid with music, with one showing Sharpton inside the morgue along with the caption, “obsessed with autopsies.”
In another video of a potentially cancerous specimen from a uterus, Sharpton reportedly asked her combined 20,000 followers, “What are some things you guys would like to see?”
When hospital administrators confronted Sharpton about her posts, she told them that she is a social media influencer and received monthly revenue for what she described as “content,” according to the lawsuit. She was fired the same day.
“Sharpton expressed no remorse or regret for her conduct,” reads the lawsuit.
The hospital alleges that she agreed to delete the photos and videos from her social media platforms and cell phone, but has since reposted the “offending images.”
As of the lawsuit’s filing, the images were still posted online despite Northwell having submitted “takedown requests” with both 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 are in blatant violation of her obligations to Northwell and constitute common-law torts,” Northwell Health said in its lawsuit.
The hospital wants a judge to bar Sharpton from posting, sharing, or otherwise using any photos or videos taken at the facility’s morgue, and order her to permanently delete the images.
It is also seeking an undetermined amount of compensatory damages.
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