Anyone facing a chronic, debilitating illness could easily let it hold them back and define their lives, but Krissy lived her life to the fullest. Despite battling multiple sclerosis, she led an active lifestyle and enjoyed inline skating and cycling. Krissy took a trip to the mountains in 2006 to go skiing and snowboarding. Two […]
There was a time when babies who were born prematurely had very little chance of survival. Now, intensive medical intervention can help babies who are born after 23 weeks, which is about 15 weeks early. Although many preemies still face an uphill battle, the survival rate for even those born seriously premature is higher now […]
Perhaps you’ve seen the TV show, “Switched at Birth.” Like the title suggests, the show follows families whose babies were unknowingly switched at birth. Most of the parents in the show have spent years helping the child grow and develop — only to learn later that the child they gave birth to lives with another […]
Our last two posts have talked about the prevalence of preventable errors health care workers make. Preventable errors range in severity, and include mistakes such as operating on the wrong body part, operating on the wrong patient, amputating the wrong limb and leaving surgical instruments in the body after an operation. The errors are so […]
In our last post, we talked about the frightening epidemic of medical malpractice. More than a decade ago, the Institute of Medicine reported that as many as 100,000 Americans die in hospitals each year from preventable hospital errors. To put that in perspective, that would be the equivalent of four full jumbo jets crashing every […]
We’re a well-informed country. When something threatens our health or safety, we know about it, and we take steps to end the threat. Right? For example, if four full jumbo jets crashed each week — killing all the occupants — people would stop flying until the error was resolved. We wouldn’t tolerate that level of […]
Many people say that there is nothing harder than losing a loved one. For family members who are grieving the loss of a loved one, the first few days after the death can be a whirlwind. Family members are busy contacting other family members to inform them of the death, planning the funeral, picking a […]
Often when discussing serious medical mistakes, we think of failure to diagnose cancer or another life threatening illness, or perhaps the administration of a contraindicated medication or a surgeon’s negligent error during a complicated procedure. The case of a young woman named Anna — who died as the apparent result of an emergency room’s failure […]
