March 14th Means More Than a Day; Patient Safety Awareness Week

 Patient Safety Awareness Week, I Remember Why

Each year on March 14^th I stop for a moment to remember the death of my son who died because of the care he received (or did not receive) by the healthcare system.  Bleeding for 5 days after a tonsillectomy, Michael died from blood loss and a body full of infection. I believed all 5 doctors who said during that week that he was fine.  But he wasn’t fine.  He was bleeding to death.

As time went on, and as angry as I was at the system I trusted and failed me, I found there was something that made me just as angry nothing to do with the healthcare system.  The people before me, who lost children, didn’t tell me I would survive this.  I did survive.  I didn’t survive my job at the time, my marriage or financially because I chose to find out how something so terrible could happen by the people we teach our children to trust.  

I began to peel back the onion, layer by layer and for the last 25 years found out that when we get to the core of how our healthcare system works, it “stinks”.  Not only because of the confusion to use it, all the different diagnosis, medication, equipment, specialists, payment, insurance, blah, blah, blah, but because we are at our most vulnerable time trying to understand it.  There is so much room for error and if the public is not involved in better understanding how these mistakes happen, they will continue.  People will die and be injured, costs will rise and nothing will change. 

Prepare as a patient.  Do your homework, help a friend, and ask for help.  If you believe something is wrong when you go to the doctor or hospital, trust your instinct, don’t be afraid to challenge it.  And, if you are not respected for your participation, go somewhere else.