Real-Life Heroes of Hurricane Sandy: The New York University Medical Center NICU nurses - When the backup generator failed and flooding started, nurses transported babies in the neonatal intensive care unit done nine flights of stairs while manually pumping the babies’ lungs

When the New York University Medical Center Hospital’s backup generator failed on Monday night during Hurricane Sandy, staff knew that they had to evacuate their patients ASAP.

A sea of ambulances raced to the scene so they could transport the 215 of its patients to the Mount Sinai Hospital and others around the city.

Nurses carried the babies of the neonatal intensive care unit down NINE flights of stairs and rode along with the infants to their new hospital.  Since there was no power and the four newborns relied on respirators to breathe, the nurses manually squeezed a bag to deliver air to the baby’s lungs.

With 1,000 staff members (which included doctors, nurses, residents and medical students) joined by firefighters and police offers, the evacuation was completed by 11 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Here was the scene on Monday night…