August 8, 2025 — No one at PEF knew that September 17, 2024, would be such a life-changing day. As the union’s elected leaders, delegates and staff prepared for the day at PEF’s annual Convention in Syracuse, they received news that a fellow member and nurse at South Beach Psychiatric Center was attacked by a patient. PEF leaders delivered the news to the Convention body and immediately sprang into action.
“On September 17, he left for work, probably said goodbye to his family,” said PEF Vice President Darlene Williams, to the delegation. “But he’s not going to come home that same person. He will never go home the way he was when he left.”
Peter Shiffman has been a registered nurse for nearly 38 years. He has been an employee of South Beach Psychiatric and a PEF member for 25 years. Shiffman was also a PEF steward and the Board President of the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Staten Island.
Shiffman’s attack by a patient left him with multiple brain bleeds when his head struck the floor. It is a day he doesn’t remember, but not for lack of trying.
“I have worked to try to remember the last time I could realistically remember walking around making rounds at South Beach,” Shiffman said. “I can come up with something from a year or so before.”
Shiffman was rushed to the hospital after being assaulted and spent 14 days on a ventilator in a medically induced coma. He remained in recovery at the hospital for weeks and upon waking up in the hospital, said that he could not figure out why or how he’d ended up there.
Since being released from the hospital, Shiffman’s recovery has been painfully slow. He has had issues with his heart, gastrointestinal system, and his limbic system. It is clear to him that these issues were all linked to his assault, but it has been hard to find a doctor to help him with his suffering and his recovery.
“I believe that I am unique in my level of injuries. Based on the fact that eight or nine months afterwards, I am actually walking around looking for a doctor or surgeon that might be able to give me some real hope based in science and medicine,” said Shiffman. “It is unlikely, but I am here.”
Shiffman has had a hard time navigating the workers’ compensation system as well. After finding a neurologist who did take workers’ compensation, Shiffman said the doctor explained that it may not be the best route for him to take.
“He started by saying that for him to give a patient an injection in their spine, a judge has to order it,” said Shiffman. “They just won’t pay for it.”
The doctor ultimately thought that Shiffman should be referred to a neurosurgeon.
Since then, Shiffman has been working with other doctors to manage his pain and other symptoms, still using the Workers’ Compensation system. Many of his treatments, especially those that affect his brain, neck and spine, have been denied or delayed. He said that he feels as though the system is worried more about balancing its budget and spending than it is about helping him alleviate his suffering.
“The pain management doctor requested an ablation, and it has gone through three rejections and has to be considered by another person,” said Shiffman.
Shiffman and PEF have been working together to try and figure out how to navigate the system. Shiffman said that while working with PEF’s legal team, they pointed to prior medical records from 2023 submitted to the Workers’ Compensation Board that show inconsistencies with how his treatment should be processed based on surgeries and injuries prior to—and unrelated to—the injuries he sustained on September 17, 2024.
“Rather than balance the budget on my back, why does the system not reach out and advise me on how to get help? It is disrespectful to anyone who does not work with the Workers’ Compensation portal, and it is disrespectful to me,” Shiffman said.
A GoFundMe setup by Shiffman’s family has been created to help Shiffman cover medical costs and Out-Of-Network expenses, transportation and more as he works on recovery.
“Beyond any money, we want awareness. We hope to shine a light on the broken system that is failing frontline healthcare workers, even after they survive traumatic and near-fatal workplace injuries,” wrote his daughter, Allison Shiffman, in a post on GoFundMe. “My dad may never fully recover. But with your help, we can fight for his dignity, his care, and a future where no nurse, no healthcare worker, no human being is ever forgotten like this again.”
Although Shiffman has had a hard time with his recovery, the message he wants to send to his fellow members, co-workers at the Office of Mental Health and South Beach Psychiatric Center is still one of hope.
“What I want to share is that as unlikely as it is for anyone to be in the situation I am in now, as statistically impossible as it is: I am here,” said Shiffman. “The reality that someone could have a life-threatening or life-changing injury on the job and feel like they’ve been thrown in the garbage months afterwards is not only a feeling. It’s a reality. So I want everyone to know: Hope is there.”
“It is absolutely necessary that repairs are made to our system so that OMH can stand for what it was intended for — to help the lives of those with mental illness, to help them with recovery and to help them have a life worth living. Everyone deserves a life worth living.”