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_This article was originally published byTruthout on Aug. 06, 2026. It is shared here under a __Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license._ Can a lawsuit hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate-change and its impact? That’s the question a Washington State-based woman is hoping to answer. Misti Leon is suing several big oil companies — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and others — over the 2021 heat-related death of her mother Juliana, who died during a record-breaking heat dome over the Pacific Northwest. For years, individuals and institutions have attempted to protect human lives from climate change using litigation. In 2015, a public interest law firm called Our Children’s Trust, representing nearly two dozen young people sued the federal government for failing to protect them against the impending impacts of fossil fuel emissions. Courts dragged their feet for more than a decade only for the case to reach a dead end at the United States Supreme Court in 2025. Leon’s civil suit is significant, not just because a Washington judge unexpectedly cleared the case for discovery and trial, but because Leon can directly link her mother’s death to climate change. Scientists concluded that the 2021 heat dome was, in the words of one research paper, “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.” It’s about a crime that already occurred instead of hypothetical harm. “Ms. Leon’s case is unique in that it is the first of its kind to seek to hold big oil companies accountable for their role in an individual’s death in a climate-related disaster,” Mike Meno, communications director at the Center for Climate Integrity, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports community efforts to hold Big Oil accountable for climate change, explained in an interview. Juliana Leon was one of an estimated 1,200 people across the Pacific Northwest whose deaths were linked to the heat dome. “She was found unresponsive in her car,” said Meno. “The medical examiner determined that her death was caused by hyperthermia,” a condition that is the opposite of the more well-known cold-related condition of hypothermia. Hyperthermia-related deaths have sharply risen over the past decade, a predictable outcome of fossil fuel emissions. Oil companies such as Exxon have long been aware of the devastating impacts their product would have on the climate. “Major oil and gas companies decades ago knew, their own scientists told them internally, that if we kept burning fossil fuels, it would lead to, in the words of one internal Exxon document, potentially catastrophic events, just like the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome,” said Meno. > Juliana Leon was one of an estimated 1,200 people across the Pacific Northwest whose deaths were linked to the heat dome. Big Oil’s failure to act on this information has drawn comparisons to Big Tobacco. Companies like Philip Morris knew about the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health and kept it secret for years. Since that information was made public, individuals suffering from their addictive products have sued repeatedly and won. A major lawsuit brought by state attorneys general culminated in 1998 in what became known as the Master Settlement Agreement, where dozens of tobacco companies settled to the tune of billions of dollars for public health. Notably, the federal government also sued tobacco companies for violations of racketeering laws over their deception. **GET FEARLESS, AD-FREE, UNCOMPROMISING REAL NEWS IN YOUR INBOX** Sign up Yet while individuals and states are taking action in the case of oil companies, the federal government clearly has no interest in holding Big Oil accountable for climate change. Instead, President Donald Trump says he wants the Justice Department to investigate fossil fuel companies for _raising_ oil prices in the wake of the Iran war. This appears to be a classic case of deflection, given that a majority of voters blame Trump for price increases at the pump. He isn’t interested in holding companies accountable for climate change; he’s upset they made it harder for people to consume oil. Moreover, his administration is suing states for trying to enforce environmental regulations aimed at oil companies. In addition to keeping their own research secret, fossil fuel companies spent years sowing doubt over the cause-and-effect relationship between greenhouse gases and a warming climate. “What that decades-long deception campaign did is it stole a generation’s worth of time when action could’ve been taken, and we could’ve averted the worst of some of these climate disasters,” said Meno. This year, more extreme weather records are expected to be broken as climate change intensifies. The first half of 2026 was the third-warmest half-year on record. An El Niño phenomenon developing this year is expected to be one of the strongest in modern history. Whether or not the Trump administration admits that the climate is changing, Americans know it is. “Anyone of a certain age who can look back over enough time just knows, as a matter of common sense, that the climate we are all living in today is not what we had a few years ago,” said Meno. The industry knows it too — and, according to Meno, oil companies “are in absolute panic mode, fighting tooth and nail to escape accountability.” Leon’s lawsuit is hardly the only one they fear. Numerous states, counties, cities, and tribal governments are suing Big Oil, and making headway. Meno explained that companies have “been pleading with the U.S. Supreme Court to take up one of these cases for years.” The Supreme Court finally agreed to review a case in Colorado where that state’s supreme court in May 2025 ruled the City of Boulder and Boulder County could move forward with discovery and trial in their suit against ExxonMobil and Suncor. Not content with leaving it to the U.S. Supreme Court, Big Oil has been lobbying Congress to grant the industry immunity over its role in climate change — and conservative lawmakers have complied. In April, Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz introduced the “Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026.” If Congress were to pass the bill, according to Meno, it “would be a truly unprecedented legal shield that would strip the public of their right to hold these corporations accountable for the harm they’ve caused.” Meno’s Center for Climate Integrity is urging members of the public to demand their elected representatives vote against Hageman and Cruz’s bill. Big Oil says it deserves immunity because it shouldn’t be penalized for giving the public what it wants. In a joint statement, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said: “These efforts to retroactively penalize companies for lawfully meeting consumer demand are misguided and counterproductive.” What they didn’t say is that they have worked for years to prevent fair competition from renewables. It’s why the state of Michigan launched an antitrust lawsuit against ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and others because they acted “as a cartel … to forestall meaningful competition from renewable energy in order to maintain their dominance.” Fossil fuel companies have long known their products are deadly, kept it secret, unfairly ensured their dominance, then argued that they ought not to be sued for delivering a product the public wants. Now, as climate-related deaths stack up, the industry claims it isn’t responsible. Misti Leon, whose mother might be alive today if governments and courts had reined in Big Oil, told _The New York Times_: “I never would have in a million years guessed that a heat dome and climate change would be what killed my mother and what took her from me. There’s no way to comprehend that and to kind of even rationalize it.” TRNN — Support Independent Journalism The Real News Network Independent · Nonprofit · Nonpartisan ## The journalism that _refuses_ to be bought. Funded by people like you. TRNN produces fearless, fact-based reporting on the stories that matter — the ones corporate media ignores, minimizes, or gets wrong. No paywalls. No advertisers. No billionaire owners. Just the truth, sustained by viewers like you. Workers & Labor Rights U.S. Politics & Democracy Palestine & Global Justice Economic Inequality Media Accountability Make a donation Monthly One-time Yearly $10 $25 $50 $100 $250 $500 $ Donate Now → Tax-deductible · Secure · Cancel anytime The Real News Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 100% Viewer Supported $0 Corporate Funding 20+ Years of Independent Journalism **Every dollar you give** goes directly toward the reporting corporate media won't do. ### _Related_ Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Close window ## Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. We encourage republication of our original content. Please copy the HTML code in the textbox below, preserving the attribution and link to the article's original location, and only make minor cosmetic edits to the content on your site. # Juliana Leon died in a climate-linked heat wave. Her daughter is suing Big Oil. by Sonali Kolhatkar, The Real News Network August 7, 2026 <h1>Juliana Leon died in a climate-linked heat wave. Her daughter is suing Big Oil.</h1> <p class="byline">by Sonali Kolhatkar, The Real News Network <br />August 7, 2026</p> <div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:33% auto"> <figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/truthout-logo.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-277549 size-full" /></figure> <div class="wp-block-media-text__content"> <p><em>This article was originally published by <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/juliana-leon-died-in-a-climate-linked-heat-wave-her-daughter-is-suing-big-oil/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Truthout</a> on Aug. 06, 2026. It is shared here under a <em> </em><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)</a> license.</em></p> </p></div> </div> <p class="has-drop-cap">Can a lawsuit hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate-change and its impact? That’s the question a Washington State-based woman is hoping to answer. <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062025/the-estate-of-a-woman-who-died-in-the-2021-pacific-northwest-heat-dome-sues-big-oil-for-wrongful-death/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Misti Leon</a> is suing several big oil companies — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and others — over the 2021 heat-related <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062025/the-estate-of-a-woman-who-died-in-the-2021-pacific-northwest-heat-dome-sues-big-oil-for-wrongful-death/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">death</a> of her mother Juliana, who died during a <a href="https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northwest/topic/2021-northwest-heat-dome-causes-impacts-and-future-outlook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">record-breaking heat dome</a> over the Pacific Northwest.</p> <p>For years, individuals and institutions have attempted to protect human lives from climate change using litigation. In 2015, a public interest law firm called Our Children’s Trust, representing nearly two dozen young people <a href="https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/juliana-v-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sued the federal government</a> for failing to protect them against the impending impacts of fossil fuel emissions. Courts dragged their feet for more than a decade only for the case to reach a dead end at the United States Supreme Court in 2025.</p> <p>Leon’s civil suit is significant, not just because a Washington judge unexpectedly <a href="https://climateintegrity.org/news/view/first-wrongful-death-climate-case-against-big-oil-wins-major-rulings-moves-toward-trial" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cleared</a> the case for discovery and trial, but because Leon can directly link her mother’s death to climate change. Scientists <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/NW-US-extreme-heat-2021-scientific-report-WWA.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">concluded</a> that the 2021 heat dome was, in the words of one research paper, “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.” It’s about a crime that already occurred instead of hypothetical harm.</p> <p>“Ms. Leon’s case is unique in that it is the first of its kind to seek to hold big oil companies accountable for their role in an individual’s death in a climate-related disaster,” Mike Meno, communications director at the <a href="https://climateintegrity.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Center for Climate Integrity</a>, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports community efforts to hold Big Oil accountable for climate change, explained in an <a href="https://risingupwithsonali.com/climate-change-is-here-can-suing-big-oil-work/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interview</a>.</p> <p>Juliana Leon was one of an estimated <a href="https://www.kuow.org/2026-06-29/five-years-after-the-dome-washington-is-still-vulnerable-to-extreme-heat" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1,200 people</a> across the Pacific Northwest whose deaths were linked to the heat dome. “She was found unresponsive in her car,” said Meno. “The medical examiner determined that her death was caused by hyperthermia,” a condition that is the opposite of the more well-known cold-related condition of hypothermia.</p> <p>Hyperthermia-related deaths have <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2822854" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sharply risen</a> over the past decade, a predictable outcome of fossil fuel emissions. Oil companies such as Exxon have long been <a href="https://www.climatefiles.com/exxon-knew/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">aware</a> of the devastating impacts their product would have on the climate. “Major oil and gas companies decades ago knew, their own scientists told them internally, that if we kept burning fossil fuels, it would lead to, in the words of one internal Exxon document, potentially catastrophic events, just like the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome,” said Meno.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignright"> <blockquote> <p>Juliana Leon was one of an estimated 1,200 people across the Pacific Northwest whose deaths were linked to the heat dome.</p> </blockquote> </figure> <p>Big Oil’s failure to act on this information has drawn comparisons to Big Tobacco. Companies like Philip Morris knew about the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health and kept it secret for years. Since that information was made public, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1117897/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">individuals</a> suffering from their addictive products have sued repeatedly and won.</p> <p>A <a href="https://www.naag.org/our-work/naag-center-for-tobacco-and-public-health/the-master-settlement-agreement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">major lawsuit</a> brought by state attorneys general culminated in 1998 in what became known as the Master Settlement Agreement, where dozens of tobacco companies settled to the tune of billions of dollars for public health. Notably, the federal government also sued tobacco companies for violations of <a href="https://www.fightcancer.org/what-we-do/big-tobacco-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">racketeering laws</a> over their deception.</p> <p>Yet while individuals and states are taking action in the case of oil companies, the federal government clearly has no interest in <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/republicans-are-trying-to-give-big-oil-immunity-for-causing-climate-chaos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">holding Big Oil accountable</a> for climate change. Instead, President Donald Trump <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/06/25/trump-accuses-big-oil-of-price-gouging/">says</a> he wants the Justice Department to investigate fossil fuel companies for <em>raising</em> oil prices in the wake of the Iran war. This appears to be a classic case of deflection, given that a majority of voters <a href="https://www.wkow.com/news/national/most-voters-blame-trump-for-rising-gas-prices-quinnipiac-poll-shows/article_2d034979-abdd-4ec0-aa73-a374dbcba7be.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blame Trump</a> for price increases at the pump. He isn’t interested in holding companies accountable for climate change; he’s upset they made it harder for people to consume oil. Moreover, his administration is <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/dojs-environmental-enforcement-arm-has-been-captured-by-industry-critics-say/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suing states</a> for trying to enforce environmental regulations aimed at oil companies.</p> <p>In addition to keeping their own research secret, fossil fuel companies spent years sowing doubt over the cause-and-effect relationship between greenhouse gases and a warming climate. “What that decades-long deception campaign did is it stole a generation’s worth of time when action could’ve been taken, and we could’ve averted the worst of some of these climate disasters,” said Meno.</p> <p>This year, more extreme weather records are expected to be broken as climate change intensifies. The first half of 2026 was the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-rapidly-developing-el-nino-raises-chance-of-record-warm-2026" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third-warmest</a> half-year on record. An <a href="https://prospect.org/2026/07/28/climate-change-wildfires-smoke-el-nino-renewable-energy-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">El Niño phenomenon</a> developing this year is expected to be one of the strongest in modern history.</p> <p>Whether or not the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/climate/climate-change-deniers-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Trump administration admits</a> that the climate is changing, Americans <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/708050/climate-change-concern-near-high-point.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">know</a> it is. “Anyone of a certain age who can look back over enough time just knows, as a matter of common sense, that the climate we are all living in today is not what we had a few years ago,” said Meno.</p> <p>The industry knows it too — and, according to Meno, oil companies “are in absolute panic mode, fighting tooth and nail to escape accountability.” Leon’s lawsuit is hardly the only one they fear. Numerous states, counties, cities, and tribal governments are <a href="https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/CCI-BigOilAccountabilityLawsuits.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suing</a> Big Oil, and making headway.</p> <p>Meno explained that companies have “been pleading with the U.S. Supreme Court to take up one of these cases for years.” The Supreme Court finally <a href="https://bouldercolorado.gov/news/us-supreme-court-decides-hear-climate-case-against-exxon-and-suncor-entities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agreed</a> to review a case in Colorado where that state’s supreme court in May 2025 <a href="https://bouldercolorado.gov/news/colorado-supreme-court-advances-historic-boulder-climate-accountability-case" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ruled</a> the City of Boulder and Boulder County could move forward with discovery and trial in their suit against ExxonMobil and Suncor.</p> <p>Not content with leaving it to the U.S. Supreme Court, Big Oil has been lobbying Congress to grant the industry immunity over its role in climate change — and <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/republicans-are-trying-to-give-big-oil-immunity-for-causing-climate-chaos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">conservative lawmakers</a> have complied. In April, Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz <a href="https://hageman.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-hageman-introduces-bill-shield-american-energy-producers-leftist-climate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">introduced</a> the “Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026.”</p> <p>If Congress were to pass the bill, according to Meno, it “would be a truly unprecedented legal shield that would strip the public of their right to hold these corporations accountable for the harm they’ve caused.” Meno’s Center for Climate Integrity is <a href="https://www.noimmunityforbigoil.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">urging members of the public</a> to demand their elected representatives vote against Hageman and Cruz’s bill.</p> <p>Big Oil says it deserves immunity because it shouldn’t be penalized for giving the public what it wants. In a joint statement, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers <a href="https://hageman.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-hageman-introduces-bill-shield-american-energy-producers-leftist-climate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>: “These efforts to retroactively penalize companies for lawfully meeting consumer demand are misguided and counterproductive.”</p> <p>What they didn’t say is that they have worked for years to <a href="https://influencemap.org/briefing/Undermining-Progress-Investigating-the-Fossil-Fuel-Sector-s-Continual-Dominance-26562" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prevent fair competition</a> from renewables. It’s why the <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2026/01/23/attorney-general-nessel-files-lawsuit-against-fossil-fuel-defendants" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">state of Michigan</a> launched an antitrust lawsuit against ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and others because they acted “as a cartel … to forestall meaningful competition from renewable energy in order to maintain their dominance.”</p> <p>Fossil fuel companies have long known their products are deadly, kept it secret, unfairly ensured their dominance, then argued that they ought not to be sued for delivering a product the public wants. Now, as climate-related deaths stack up, the industry claims it isn’t responsible. Misti Leon, whose mother might be alive today if governments and courts had reined in Big Oil, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/climate/oil-companies-wrongful-death-lawsuit-heat-dome.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The New York Times</em></a>: “I never would have in a million years guessed that a heat dome and climate change would be what killed my mother and what took her from me. There’s no way to comprehend that and to kind of even rationalize it.”</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com/juliana-leon-died-in-a-climate-linked-heat-wave-her-daughter-is-suing-big-oil">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com">The Real News Network</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/cropped-TRNN-2021-logomark-square.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p> <img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://therealnews.com/?republication-pixel=true&post=345687&amp;ga4=G-7LYS8R7V51" style="width:1px;height:1px;"><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: "https://therealnews.com/juliana-leon-died-in-a-climate-linked-heat-wave-her-daughter-is-suing-big-oil", urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/therealnews.com/p.js"></script> Copy to Clipboard

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_This story originally appeared inPrism on Aug. 03, 2026._ Following the largest nurses strike in New York City history, Marilyn Shuler and 11 of her co-workers returned to their jobs at Montefiore Hospitals in the Bronx in February, only to find that their work environment had changed in a major way. At the time, Shuler worked in utilization review, a department that ascertains the need for medical care and whether care is covered by insurance. The veteran nurse, who worked at Montefiore for almost 40 years, had to begin using Datavant, a tool used to abridge the process by which the hospital sends patient and care information to insurance companies. Datavant’s website refers to itself as an AI platform. Shuler said she and other nurses thought the tool would just help process the backlog of cases created by the nurses strike. But when case volume returned to normal, the 12 nurses working in utilization review were told to continue using Datavant. In early July, after a few months of using the tool, Shuler was laid off from the position she held for six years. Her colleagues were all laid off too. They felt they had been replaced by artificial intelligence. Shuler’s case and that of her colleagues, she said, is far from an outlier. Hospitals will continue to automate and eliminate the jobs of nurses and other workers through AI, Shuler added. Job automation keeps nurses up at night. It was a concern raised by nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) earlier in the year, when 15,000 walked off the job demanding a new contract. “Artificial intelligence should never replace real human caring from a nurse,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said in a press release issued when the 12 nurses at Montefiore lost their job. Montefiore representatives deny having replaced workers with Datavant. “As is often the case, the claims by NYSNA are inaccurate and misleading,” Joe Solmonese, Montefiore’s senior vice president for government relations and strategic communications, said in an email. “What is true is that we are always investing in new technology to ensure the best care and outcomes for our patients and will continue to do so for the betterment of the people we serve.” A spokesperson for the hospital said that Datavant’s tools are a nonclinical program that helps facilitate the paperwork process, but did not address whether the program uses AI. **GET FEARLESS, AD-FREE, UNCOMPROMISING REAL NEWS IN YOUR INBOX** Sign up Shuler said the laid-off nurses did not receive proper notice from the hospital. A union representative told the nurses on May 6, National Nurses Day, that the hospital planned to eliminate the 12 utilization review positions. “We just can’t believe that a machine can replace all the decades of … clinical judgment and knowledge that we have,” Shuler told Prism. Job automation through AI is bound to impact nurses in other parts of the country too. Joe-Ann Fergus, the executive director of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said her union, which is engaged in a fierce contract battle with the largest hospital network in the state, is pushing back against an AI future in which hospitals deprioritize workforce development. A future in which hospitals deskill their workers, she said, could be disastrous for patients and hospitals alike. “We have already begun to see that in places where AI has been introduced around triaging,” Fergus said. “The younger, newer clinicians, the more exposure they have to AI, and the earlier exposure they have to AI, the higher the risk of them deskilling.” Fergus said healthcare workers should have a background education, but that they should also supplement that with real experience in the field and trial and error. Reading X-ray scans, Fergus said, is an example of a practice that is enhanced by AI tools. But workers should still be able to know what they are looking at. “We will lose the skill of doctors being able to read those tools as well, and when the inevitable happens that the system goes down, then nobody’s going to know how to read the images,” Fergus said. Using an AI system that does not account for the historical inequities of the healthcare industry, Fergus said, is also a deep concern. Fergus worries that hospitals might look to save money on the AI products they contract with and end up with a service that is not attuned to serving a diverse population. “If there’s any issues of racism, or the system is not properly programmed for the population that it’s in, then that additional programming of the AI can amplify the disparities that already exist and can actually result in injuries,” Fergus said. Despite hospitals onboarding AI systems as an addition to workers’ current workflows, Fergus said it is only a matter of time before hospitals look to automate jobs. She said most hospitals will likely see this as short-term savings. But if they don’t create more staffing to maintain and continuously train the products, “then the systems become obsolete, and they become harmful to the patients,” Fergus said. _Editorial Team:_ _Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor_ _Lara Witt, Top Editor_ _Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor_ TRNN — Support Independent Journalism The Real News Network Independent · Nonprofit · Nonpartisan ## The journalism that _refuses_ to be bought. Funded by people like you. TRNN produces fearless, fact-based reporting on the stories that matter — the ones corporate media ignores, minimizes, or gets wrong. No paywalls. No advertisers. No billionaire owners. Just the truth, sustained by viewers like you. 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Please copy the HTML code in the textbox below, preserving the attribution and link to the article's original location, and only make minor cosmetic edits to the content on your site. # New York City nurses say AI is replacing them by Eddie Velazquez, The Real News Network August 7, 2026 <h1>New York City nurses say AI is replacing them</h1> <p class="byline">by Eddie Velazquez, The Real News Network <br />August 7, 2026</p> <div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:20% auto"> <figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/PRISMlogo-sized.png" alt="" class="wp-image-293467 size-full" /></figure> <div class="wp-block-media-text__content"> <p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/08/03/new-york-city-nurses-say-ai-is-replacing-them/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Prism</a> on Aug. 03, 2026.</em></p> </p></div> </div> <p class="has-drop-cap">Following the <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/03/04/nurses-strike-contracts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">largest nurses strike</a> in New York City history, Marilyn Shuler and 11 of her co-workers returned to their jobs at Montefiore Hospitals in the Bronx in February, only to find that their work environment had changed in a major way. </p> <p>At the time, Shuler worked in utilization review, a department that ascertains the need for medical care and whether care is covered by insurance. The veteran nurse, who worked at Montefiore for almost 40 years, had to begin using <a href="https://www.datavant.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Datavant</a>, a tool used to abridge the process by which the hospital sends patient and care information to insurance companies. Datavant’s website refers to itself as an AI platform.</p> <p>Shuler said she and other nurses thought the tool would just help process the backlog of cases created by the nurses strike. But when case volume returned to normal, the 12 nurses working in utilization review were told to continue using Datavant. </p> <p>In early July, after a few months of using the tool, Shuler was laid off from the position she held for six years. Her colleagues were all laid off too. They felt they had been replaced by artificial intelligence.</p> <p>Shuler’s case and that of her colleagues, she said, is far from an outlier. Hospitals will continue to automate and eliminate the jobs of nurses and other workers through AI, Shuler added. </p> <p>Job automation keeps nurses up at night. It was a concern raised by nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) earlier in the year, when 15,000 <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/01/21/new-york-city-nurses-say-wealthy-hospitals-are-creating-untenable-work-conditions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">walked off the job</a> demanding a new contract. </p> <p>“Artificial intelligence should never replace real human caring from a nurse,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said in <a href="https://www.nysna.org/press/bronx-needs-real-nurses-not-ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a press release</a> issued when the 12 nurses at Montefiore lost their job.  </p> <p>Montefiore representatives deny having replaced workers with Datavant. </p> <p>“As is often the case, the claims by NYSNA are inaccurate and misleading,” Joe Solmonese, Montefiore’s senior vice president for government relations and strategic communications, said in an email. “What is true is that we are always investing in new technology to ensure the best care and outcomes for our patients and will continue to do so for the betterment of the people we serve.”</p> <p>A spokesperson for the hospital said that Datavant’s tools are a nonclinical program that helps facilitate the paperwork process, but did not address whether the program uses AI.</p> <p>Shuler said the laid-off nurses did not receive proper notice from the hospital. A union representative told the nurses on May 6, National Nurses Day, that the hospital planned to eliminate the 12 utilization review positions. </p> <p>“We just can’t believe that a machine can replace all the decades of … clinical judgment and knowledge that we have,” Shuler told Prism. </p> <p>Job automation through AI is bound to impact nurses in other parts of the country too. Joe-Ann Fergus, the executive director of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said her union, which is engaged in a <a href="https://www.massnurses.org/2026/07/29/boston-medical-center-s-healthcare-workers-join-forces-at-the-picket-line/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fierce contract battle</a> with the largest hospital network in the state, is pushing back against an AI future in which hospitals deprioritize workforce development. A future in which hospitals deskill their workers, she said, could be disastrous for patients and hospitals alike.</p> <p>“We have already begun to see that in places where AI has been introduced around triaging,” Fergus said. “The younger, newer clinicians, the more exposure they have to AI, and the earlier exposure they have to AI, the higher the risk of them deskilling.”</p> <p>Fergus said healthcare workers should have a background education, but that they should also supplement that with real experience in the field and trial and error. Reading X-ray scans, Fergus said, is an example of a practice that is enhanced by AI tools. But workers should still be able to know what they are looking at.</p> <p>“We will lose the skill of doctors being able to read those tools as well, and when the inevitable happens that the system goes down, then nobody’s going to know how to read the images,” Fergus said. </p> <p>Using an AI system that does not account for the historical inequities of the healthcare industry, Fergus said, is also a deep concern. Fergus worries that hospitals might look to save money on the AI products they contract with and end up with a service that is <a href="https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/news/ai-algorithms-used-healthcare-can-perpetuate-bias" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">not attuned</a> to serving a diverse population.</p> <p>“If there’s any issues of racism, or the system is not properly programmed for the population that it’s in, then that additional programming of the AI can amplify the disparities that already exist and can actually result in injuries,” Fergus said. </p> <p>Despite hospitals onboarding AI systems as an addition to workers’ current workflows, Fergus said it is only a matter of time before hospitals look to automate jobs. She said most hospitals will likely see this as short-term savings. </p> <p>But if they don’t create more staffing to maintain and continuously train the products, “then the systems become obsolete, and they become harmful to the patients,” Fergus said.</p> <p><em>Editorial Team:</em><br /><em>Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor</em><br /><em>Lara Witt, Top Editor</em><br /><em>Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor</em></p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com/new-york-city-nurses-say-ai-is-replacing-them">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com">The Real News Network</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/cropped-TRNN-2021-logomark-square.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p> <img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://therealnews.com/?republication-pixel=true&post=345677&amp;ga4=G-7LYS8R7V51" style="width:1px;height:1px;"><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: "https://therealnews.com/new-york-city-nurses-say-ai-is-replacing-them", urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/therealnews.com/p.js"></script> Copy to Clipboard

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