How I saved my daughter from a medical error

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [How to prove the value of business continuity](. Today the total cost of a single, unplanned outage for health care organizations is $918,000. This eBrief gathers industry insights to help you answer the tough business continuity questions. [Get the guide](. Increasingly burdensome, nonclinical demands and requirements place on doctors has led to a [nationwide crisis of physician burnout]( -- hear how some doctors have addressed the [growing challenges that can cause burnout](. Challenged with 15 minutes to share patient information and answer questions? Hear how one doctor spent [five minutes]( crafting and sending a message to thousands that started [important, educated conversations]( about HPV vaccines before patients entered the practice. [Survey: 2018 priorities for hospital CIOs](. 62% of CIOs said they are focusing on physician secure texting adoption and buy-in. [See the results](. [Patient misidentification can lead to medical errors, patient harm, and costly inefficiencies]( for providers. Get the facts on patient misidentification, and [learn how to avoid it]( from organizations that use biometrics to do so. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: May 14, 2018 [How I saved my daughter from a medical error]( We had no choice in becoming the “crazy” family that left a hospital against medical advice. Our four-day-old daughter was completely helpless, her condition deteriorating and the staff was ignoring our concerns. I carefully turned off the blue lights, removed her from the isolette, placed her in a car seat and eloped from the pediatrics […] [When the nurses’ work goes unnoticed in the ER]( The two-page letter of complaint was typed on crested letterhead. The words “utter disappointment” jumped off the page, bold-faced and caps-locked. “The doctors left me to bleed,” she wrote, banging on the exclamation key as if she was firing lasers in a game of Space Invaders. “I was hemorrhaging, and they did nothing except pop […] [A physician’s guide to getting more time with family]( Do you ever feel like time is always slipping away? Do you feel like you hardly get time to enjoy the things you love? For example, do you feel like you get enough time in your day to spend with your kids? If your answer is “no,” welcome to the club. You are not alone! […] [Does federal law violate our right to health care?]( Proponents of universal health care believe that health care is a universal human right, but is it a constitutionally-protected right, and if so, how does the U.S. Constitution compel the government to protect that right? We can make the argument that the right to health care is indeed protected under the Ninth Amendment, which states, […] [An emergency physician makes the case for circumcision]( Whether to circumcise a newborn male child is not the simple, binary “yes/no” question it appears to be. Rather, the choice is affected by an astonishing array of issues: religion, culture, health and hygiene, sexually transmitted infections, expense, pain and medical recommendations. Some cite ethical concerns regarding usurpation of a child’s free choice. Others claim […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Conference planners!]( Find vetted, handpicked physician speakers that shine on stage. [Physician Speaking by KevinMD: Your audience deserves the best](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [When someone is not dead but not alive]( May lay in a hospital bed, her wrinkled skin covered with sensors that monitored her every breath and heartbeat. Her husband sat at her bedside gently stroking her withering gray hair as her chest moved slowly up and down accompanied by the soft whoosh-whoosh of the ventilator that breathed for her. He stared expectantly at […] [This physician explains why he’s a moderate voter]( We are living in times of extreme political polarization in the United States. In fact, it’s a trend sweeping the Western world right now. I’ve always considered myself somewhat middle-of-the-road, and I vote much more for the candidate than the political party. Of course, I have my own strong views on certain issues, but I’m […] [For this physician, financial independence is bittersweet]( I say that financial independence is bittersweet and you look at me with your jaw slack, your eyes questioning. You scan to the top of my blog, and you see the words “personal finance,” and you’re wondering if I’ve gone slightly daffy. But then I point to my byline, personal finance with a twist, and continue […] [Words are powerful. Use them carefully.]( I’ve written in the past about how words are powerful — that they can have multiple meanings, how they can change depending on context. I am often reminded of how true that is in everyday oncology practice, especially when it comes to meeting new patients. Some are diagnosed with cancers that carry a relatively good […] [This medical student wants to be a radiologist. Does the field have a future?]( Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a term that is often associated with robots or computers that “learn” by having material introduced to them. Different people have different reactions to the idea of AI, especially with its potential use in medicine. AI can perform many tasks at the same time and in the same way producing […] [Premed? Here are 3 things to consider.]( Hello, premeds! There’s so much advice out there from so many sources. Your aunt, cousin, and grandpa think they know what to do to be successful in your pursuit of medicine. All of your friends are experts — and why aren’t you a doctor already? I know, I know … This time in life is […] [Barbara Bush: The First Lady of palliative care]( The “Great Man Theory” of history was popularized by the Scottish author Thomas Carlyle in the mid-19th century. In his 1840 “Lectures on Heroes,” he famously wrote: “The history of the world is the biography of great men.” Carlyle claimed that history was made by “great men” possessing personal courage, vision, charisma and political or […] [The one-word secret to happiness]( I was recently asked what I thought was the number one problem that caused unhappiness in America. We are one of the most prosperous nations in history. You might think that with all that prosperity and wealth, Americans would be happy. Obviously, wealth does not equal happiness. Many would argue that since America has a […] [Obstetric physician anesthesiologists aim to provide a happy Mother’s Day to all patients]( A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. I love to see the pure joy that floods over mothers as they hear their new baby’s first cry! The ability to help make childbirth safer for mothers and babies led me to a career in obstetric anesthesiology — in the high-risk, high-reward environment of […] [What makes you an effective change agent in health care?]( Change and health care are closely interconnected. Health care organizations are continually faced with the need to adapt to change, whether it be advances in medical care or technology, growing demand for care delivery, a patient population that is increasingly active and involved in their own health and well-being, or evolving reimbursement and cost models. […] [Children shouldn’t worry about being hungry in school]( Last fall, my nine-year-old daughter asked me to buy some extra lunch items at the grocery store because she and a friend of hers were going to take turns bringing in food for a classmate who couldn’t afford to purchase lunch at school. I was reminded of this conversation last week, when the school committee […] [Answering your questions about the mental health benefits of psychotherapy]( The interviewees in my book talked about declining quality of health care. Do people even know or remember what it is like to get quality health care? Doctor visits are often too short to be adequately through. Psychotherapy is too often too brief, with a focus on “quick fix.” Psychotherapy isn’t just about talking. It involves […] [MKSAP: 35-year-old woman is evaluated for intermittent fever]( Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 35-year-old woman is evaluated for intermittent fever, sweats, fatigue, and dull midchest pain of 2 weeks’ duration. Medical history is significant for liver transplantation 6 months ago for primary biliary cirrhosis; she was seronegative for cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus, and […] [Health care is not a service commodity]( As we continue to attempt to restructure how health care is measured, reimbursed and organized, we must hold true to the idea that health care is simply not a service commodity. “A commodity is any good or service (“products” or “activities”) produced by human labor and offered as a product for general sale on the market.” Our […] [To Paxil, with love]( In 1994, Penguin Books published what would become a national bestseller titled, Listening to Prozac written by Dr. Peter Kramer, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University at the time. Throughout the book, he debates the ethics of “cosmetic pharmacology” a term associated with the transformation of personality traits through medication. Kramer describes several […] [Physician burnout shouldn’t be linked to resilience]( Recently, I was asked to give a talk on resilience and its role in reducing physician burnout. I was excited by the opportunity, but asked if I could focus more on cultural change and institutional solutions for burnout. When they said no, I declined. Why? Well, it’s not that I don’t see the value in […] [10 reasons why doctors spend too much money]( Once every couple of years I have medical students from the local medical school over for dinner. At some point, the conversation usually turns to finance, and I commiserate with them about their loan burdens. I typically toss them a few pearls of wisdom, wish them good luck, and we move on to something else. 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